Blagojevich Addresses Reporters

BLAGOJEVICH: In my view, those of us who make the rules ought to be able to follow a simple lesson that I was taught to believe in in Sunday school called the Golden Rule: that you should do unto others as you would have others do unto you. And for those of use who make the rules, and we can provide health care to ourselves and our families, then we should be able to provide the same kind of health care to the rest of the citizens who hired us to represent them.

And so, from the moment of my reelection, I've been pushing and prodding the house to expand health care. And unfortunately, they've consistently stood in the way of those expansions.

Since my reelection in November of 2006, I've pushed and prodded the house for real and meaningful property tax relief for homeowners here in Cook County. The House stood in the way of that. In fact, they passed a law that actually is taking property tax relief away from homeowners in Cook County.

I've pushed and prodded the system and tried to encourage the House to pass an expansion of the Illinois breast and cervical cancer programs so that the 261,000 uninsured women in Illinois can have the same access to routine mammograms and pap smears, breast and cervical cancer screenings that those women who have insurance have, so we can save lives and keep moms alive to care for their children. The House failed to act.

So the House's action today and the causes of the impeachment are because I've done things to fight for families who are with me here today. And I'm going to talk about some of the examples that I'd like you -- to share with all of you, and some of the counts that the House is actually choosing to impeach me on.

For example, the I Save Prescription Drug Program is among the things the House said I should be removed from office for.