Thursday, March 25, 2010

The State of Political Discourse: 2010 Health Care Reform Bill

Representative Al Grayson:

The Republican Health Care Plan
1. Don’t get sick
2. If you do get sick
3. Die quickly

Senator Al Franken
“Shut up and listen to me”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
“But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”

Representative Alcee Hastings
“There ain’t no rules here, we’re trying to accomplish something … ...All this talk about rules … When the deal goes down … we make‘em up as we go along.”

Congressman Hastings was a federal judge for 10 years until he was impeached and removed from office in 1989 for corruption and perjury, becoming the first impeached judge to serve in Congress.

Representative John Conyers
“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill’ … What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

Q: What part of the Constitution do you think gives Congress the authority mandate individuals to purchase health insurance?

A: “Under several clauses, the good and welfare clause and a couple of others….”

Congressman Conyers is the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, a lawyer, and the husband of Monica Conyers, the former President of the Detroit City Council who pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.

Representative Bart Stupack
“All the phones are unplugged at our house” because “of the obscene calls and threats. His wife stopped watching TV news so she wouldn’t see “People saying they’re going to spit on you and all this… That’s just not fun.”

That was before his vote switch

"It is absurd to think I would change my vote for a tow truck and a fence to keep deer from walking onto the runway of an airport in my district."

Representative Jerrold Nadler to Speaker Pelosi: "We said we need to deal with this now or you're going to have real problems."

Representative Tom Pierrielo
"If you don't tie our hands, we'll keep stealing."

Senator Ben Nelson
“My vote is not for sale period.”

Senator Mary Landrieu
“The fact of the matter is, and I know people don’t believe this, but I can’t be bought.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
“If they don’t have something in it important to them, then it doesn’t speak well of them.”

Representative Joe Wilson
“You lie”

Representative Randy Neugebauer
“(It’s a) Baby Killer.”

Dan Rather on President Obama and Health Care Reform
"Listen, he's a nice person, he's very articulate" this is what's being used against him, "but he couldn't sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic."

Vice President Joe Biden
“It’s a big fucking deal”

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