Foreign Affairs

The gentleman who represents the minority party on the Rules Committee has confronted this issue in the past. He confronted it in 2002, he confronted it in 2003, he confronted it in 2004 and again in 2005. On each of those occasions he voted to increase the debt limit. His party was in charge. Unfortunately my party voted against it at that point in time because we weren't in charge. The point I make is that the American public too often believes that we do not do what we think is the responsible thing for our country but what think is the right thing to do from the perspective of our party...

Democrats will get something done. Well, tonight, President Obama is having a healing tone. And toughest from the President as well and the conviction and House Majority Leader and we're waiting to hear what the President has to say...

I think it's sufficient to say that we're very close. We're working very hard. As you can tell, we've been working very long hours to try to get this done for the American people. And the President's been very engaged in our discussions, as you know, we've been at the White House now on three out of the last four days. And my expectation is that we will be getting very close today...

We hope it will be more than that and if it is, that will be a bonus. But it obviously takes 218 votes to pass the bill. That's what we're looking for. But the real focus is on the substance of this Bill and what it does for America...

Frankly, the Republicans createded what is called the medicare advantage. Medicare advantage has private sector. It's overpaid. Almost everybody believes it's overpaid by 10% to as much as 25% or 30%...

I certainly think that when the House passes a Bill, and you know, Ed, we said we're going to give substantial notice to people, so we have days to go before we put this of the Floor, but when we pass this Bill, it will give us momentum. It will send a signal to the Senate that we believe the overwhelming majority of the American public want health reform...

I think we will have the Speaker absolutely correct and I think we will have a public option and the difference is how exactly will that public option be framed and there is a difference between the Ways and Means Committee and the vergence of the public option and the energy in commerce public option. We'll get those worked out and I think she's absolutely right, we'll have a public option and, yes, if the Senate Bill does not include a public option, we have to work that out in conference...

In the polls I have seen this morning, they did respond all over the country very positively to this speech. The President did what he needed to do first of all he made it very clear there is a very big problem. We've got to deal with that the present system is not sustainable from a financial standpoint for individuals, for families, for businesses, small, medium and large and for the government...

Mark this day, June 26, 2009. My colleagues we have an opportunity to serve in a historic session of the Congress of the United States. We have an opportunity to take action that will make a major difference in the security and independence and environment of our globe as well as our country. We have been given the privilege by our fellow citizens to serve in a time of historic change and meeting challenges that were the subject of this past presidential campaign.

We think this is a critically important, historic day to move on some very critically important issues. One is our national security. We cannot continue to be held hostage to those from abroad who are supplying us with an overwhelming percentage of our energy needs. We also have to meet the global warming crisis that confronts us for these two issues are critical. This bill is a step, an important step, to meet these two challenges...