Barbara Boxer Quotes

I have stood on the front lines of the health care system as a doctor, patient and concerned parent. Those experiences have served as my guideposts throughout the struggle to reform America's health care system. And it's those same experiences that tell me that fear and election hysteria should not overshadow the reality of reform.

The only possible role that I can see for reconciliation would be to make modest changes in the major package to improve affordability, to deal with what share of Medicaid expansion the federal government pays, those kinds of issues, which is the traditional role for reconciliation in health care.

The bottom line: health care reform is about the patient, not about the physician.

When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically - that's not how he was raised - he cared that it was the right thing to do.

Nobody claims that every treaty is entitled to an up or down vote. Nobody claims that every proposed law is entitled to an up or down vote. Why is a judicial nomination entitled to an up or down vote? The Constitution gives the complete power to the Senate to set its own rule.

When you're talking about comprehensive health care, you're going to make a lot of people unhappy.

We got to hit the country while the country's hot. That's the only thing that makes any impression to these goddamned senators.... We don't want to wait just for their convenience.... They'll move as the country moves.

I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t care if the Senate doesn’t do one other piece of business this year. You’ve got to keep this bill on the floor. You can tell Mansfield [the Senate Majority Leader] … The President of the United States doesn’t care if this bill is there forever. We are not going to have anything else hit the floor until this bill is passed.

Liberal that I am, I support health-care reform on its merits alone. My liberal blood boils, for example, when I read that half of the personal bankruptcies in this country are brought on, in part, by medical expenses.

I have been absolutely clear where I'm coming from about health care reform. This is something this nation has to do and a robust public option has been the mantra of my campaign from the very outset.

I have been following the attempt to initiate or revamp federal involvement in the health of Americans since it was a major topic for my high school debating team in 1947.

Over and over again, I hear from Oregonians that we need real health care reform that provides every American with access to quality, affordable care.

Lyndon Johnson, as majority leader of the United States Senate, he made the Senate work.

If Obama wanted to make radical changes to America's health long-term, all he has to do is treble the price of sugar and salt.

As a single-payer advocate, I believe that at the end of the day, if a state goes forward and passed an effective single-payer program, it will demonstrate that you can provide quality health care to every man, woman and child in a more cost-effective way.

I ran for Congress in 1996 to help Ted Kennedy pass a comprehensive health insurance reform bill.

Advice and consent does not mean rubber stamp in the Senate.

Everyone knows about the substantive issues of concern, like federal health care, but very little is said about the process, the lack of accountability.

We will have health care reform in America.

Because of the president's leadership, every American will have access to affordable, quality health care.

Health care reform, the marquee legislative accomplishment of the Obama administration's first term, was passed before we entered the world of divided government.

If the goal of health-care reform is to provide comprehensive, universal health care in a cost-effective way, the only honest approach is a single-payer approach.

Whatever we do, it is definitely time that we reboot the health care reform attempt. It's time to completely start over.

Reconciliation cannot be used to pass comprehensive health care reform. It won't work because it was never designed for that kind of significant legislation; it was designed for deficit reduction.

There are times in Annapolis when a governor's support can move an issue over the goal line.