Posted on 12/23/2009 1:08:30 PM PST by Sub-Driver
December 23, 2009 Reid: Real People Understand The Urgency For Health Reform
Washington, D.C.—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor this afternoon. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
“The health care votes we have held this week have been procedural in nature. Each has been a party-line vote. And much of this debate has focused on politics.
“But health reform is not about procedure, or partisanship, or politics.
“It is about people. People like the thousands who write us every day. A small, small fraction of those letters are right here on my desk.
“Each one of these letters represents a story, a tragedy, a life, a death – a person. People who wake up every morning and struggle to get health care or struggle to hold on to it. People who lie awake every night second-guessing the agonizing decisions they have to make about what to sacrifice just to stay healthy.
“Here’s a letter that was written to Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania:
‘Dear Senator Casey: In a country like the United States, we shouldn’t need a tip jar at an ice cream shop to raise money for a kid with leukemia.’
“Here’s what another one of these letters says – a plea that a father in North Las Vegas, Nevada sent to me:
‘Can you imagine what it’s like to have a doctor look you in the eye while you hold your one-year-old child and tell you that you will likely outlive your son? I am certain my story is not unique. But it is real.
‘Stop forcing Americans to use the most expensive point of service – the emergency room – to get what the system won’t give them.
‘Let’s make all Americans equal in the eyes of health care. Please.’
“This is not about the number of pages in this bill. It is about the number of people whom this bill will help.”
“Real people?” This guy is unreal.
Wow, Harry the hypocrite. If Obama Care is so great, WHY DON’T YOU SIGN YOURSELF UP??? This has NOTHING to with health care, and he knows it!! This is about balancing the budget by raising taxes by the hundredfold while claiming to “give” something to the American people. BEing from DC, I can tell you that Capitol Hill is inundated with every time of mind-altering drug, and this guy acts like he’s not with it!!
Harry Reid is insane...if there were a “true” urgency ...the benefits would kick in January 1.
Well done!
Are the people of Nevada likely to reelect this POS socialist moron?
I seem to recall a report which stated that it doesn't matter what form of healthcare we get, they just need to pass something. And why would that be?
Once the bill is passed they can reframe it any way they wish.
The goal is not to help those unfortunate souls who don't have healthcare.
The goal is to get as much control over us as they can possibly get.
If somebody can control access to my doctor and impede how my doctor cares for me, then I no longer have control over my person.
This healthcare bill is supremely hideous.
"The key to Marxism is medicine" -- Vladimir Lenin
Here’s the urgency folks...
Wow, that was just perfectly articulated. It’s exactly right!! ANd imagine their prescribing this kind of health care for US and not for themselves!!!!
“Let’s make all Americans equal in the eyes of health care. Please.”
I would like to be equal to an Oklahoman or a Louisianan, who got special deals, Harry. You’re not making things more equal. You’re making them less equal—and in a perverted way. You’re going to use the American people as political pawns by abusing your power to decide who gets health care and who does not for the purpose of influencing the voting process.
There’s got to be a slogan in there someplace ... “Health Care Will Kill 440,000 Before It’ Implemented” ... Harry Reid ...
Ah yes. Emotion rather than common sense.
I wanted some reform, but not a total over-haul, the fool!
Maybe he should have just said: the people who COUNT understand.....
If it was urgent, they wouldn’t have scheduled it to begin after the next major election.
I was driving down the street the other day when Harry and Dodd came on the radio. They started droning on and on about how the regular people hate their insurance, and their insurance companies.
85% of americans like their insurance.
I sat with my Dad for four months, a couple of times a week, going to radiation and dialysis; through CAT scans, PET scans, and all sorts of biopsies and appointments.
His insurance company could not have been more helpful, cooperative, and dare I say it, compassionate.
My wife works at a hospital. They treat everyone who comes through the door. There is never any question about treatment, except whether or not you have it. They focus on getting you fixed first, and then worry about the payment.
My best friend as a kid, grew up to have a degenerative bone disease in her back. Before it killed her, the State of Vermont provided her with outstanding care—again, in a compassionate and reasonable manner. Yes, even us conservatives realize that people who are unable to work, without supporting families, need some help.
The system works for those who are willing to work with it, and within it, and who are willing to take responsibility for their own care.
These guys are delusional. They are bad. They are disconnected. How come my individual examples of care and service are not held up as the examples. No one got denied anything. No one was turned away.
People are great. Government is bad.
With a nod towards Michelle Obama: I have lived here all my life, and now is the first time I am ashamed of my government.
I hate it when these out-of-touch beltway jerks tell me (”the people”) what we think. He’s so out of touch with reality that his home address should be on Pandora.
Indeed, such stories are real. Universal health insurance, or health care, or whatever it's called this week, won't solve the problem. Fathers will still hear that they will likely outlive their one-year-old son. The one thing hcr will likely guarantee is that MORE fathers will hear this sad news. Not only will there continue to be incurable diseases and conditions, but fathers will hear the cost of medical treatments are too steep to be spent on just one child. They'll hear that there was a promising drug being developed, but after the government took over health care, the pharmaceutical companies couldn't afford to continue its development. Fathers will hear that their child will be put on the list for to see the appropriate government-approved specialist, but the list is approximately 39 months long and the child will likely only live an additional 6 days.
Yes, Senator Reid, real people do understand the urgency of the government to keep their hands off health care.
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