Words from the Health-Care Summit
Policy + Politics

Words from the Health-Care Summit

Neither side gave much ground in Thursday’s day-long session about health care

"I hope this isn’t political theater where we’re just playing to the cameras and criticizing each other instead of actually trying to solve the problem. That’s not what the American people are looking for… We all know this is urgent." – President Obama.

"The president has crippled the credibility of this week's summit by proposing the same massive government takeover of health care based on a partisan bill the American people have already rejected." – House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio

"We just can't afford this. That's the ultimate problem." - Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.

"This is a car that can't be recalled and fixed and we ought to start over… We believe we have a better idea." - Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

"This is the last chance, as far as I'm concerned." - Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.

"The last perfect legislation was presented to the Israelis at the base of Mount Sinai." - Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

"We all agree on the problem here and the problem is that health inflation is driving us off a fiscal cliff." - Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

"My advice to our Republican leadership is we should view this as a good faith effort and go in there with a consensus list of provisions that we could support and that would make a difference." - Sen. Susan Collins R-Maine