Jim McDermott Quotations

We're right on track. We're going to do it all over again this year.

Most of us agree there's going to be a tax cut. The question is how much, how soon and who gets it.

Medicare would just become for old, sick people at the end of life. And I don't think that's a good system ... I don't think that's the way I want to treat seniors in this country.

He didn't forget them in death, just as they are special in life.

I think ... the real threat to the United States is his arms, so let's take those away through inspections, ... Then we don't have to argue about this regime-change business.

Right now, what I see on paper says that 36 percent of this tax cut goes to the top 1 percent. That's not fair,

We have squeezed providers and we have made savings and we have kept the system basically functioning for 30-some years.

We pretended there was no problem with Agent Orange after Vietnam and later the Pentagon recanted, after untold suffering by veterans.

We're essentially saying to every senior citizen, 'Here's a voucher. Go find yourself an insurance company.' Now, if you're 65 and in good health, no problem. If you're 89, like my mother, and you've got some problems, maybe you can't buy what you need,

Why do they keep coming back to this issue and keep trying to hook the Iraqis into that?

We went to Iraq because we care what happens to Americans -- what happens to American soldiers, what happens to American people.

There's nothing wrong with the free-enterprise system, ... But it has to have some compassion.

Premium support is nothing but a voucher system. Unless there's a guarantee that every plan gives the same benefit package to anybody who buys it, and that you and I get it at the same price, this is going to be bad for the sick elderly.

Premium support is nothing but a voucher system, ... Unless there's a guarantee that every plan gives the same benefit package to anybody who buys it, and that you and I get it at the same price, this is going to be bad for the sick elderly.

Our desire is that Mr. Hussein allow unfettered inspections, we do not want any question about that because we want this to be peacefully and diplomatically resolved,

Any of these banks that merge add value to the whole sector.

Banking companies that stumble in this environment are vulnerable and the bar has been raised.

This day feels to me like we're taking a step down the road to becoming a political lynch mob. We're in so much hurry to get this done so it can be in the Saturday/Sunday news cycle and have our mint juleps at five o'clock, we are going to find a rope, find a tree, and ask a bunch of questions later. It will be too late for fairness,

If he were serious about the talk, he'd be backing electoral reform legislation,

You could call him at any time if there was any urgency. He was very direct and gave pragmatic advice for new mothers.

The leadership eventually has to put some controls on us. Leadership and restraint by the members of the Appropriations Committee are the most important things.

I think it's a trial balloon to see what happens, and I'm not impressed with it.

But beyond the hysteria of phantom death panels, where is the abomination? Show me the provisions that will hurt consumers, because if you think a $110 billion a year tax break for working-class Americans to buy private health insurance is a government takeover, I welcome the debate.

There's nothing wrong with the free-enterprise system. But it has to have some compassion.

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.

I'm not giving the president a blank check, period.

I'm old enough to remember John Kennedy sending a few advisers into Vietnam. I'm very worried we'll get in and we'll get mired down in something we don't have any idea what to do [with].

You can make people do anything if they're afraid.