Politics & Power Quote by Jan Schakowsky

The line reads like a thank-you note with a warning label: praise up front, limits immediately after. Schakowsky, a career legislator fluent in the politics of appropriations and coalition-building, is doing two things at once. She’s protecting community health centers from becoming scapegoats while also refusing the comforting fiction that a patchwork safety net can substitute for a functioning health system.

The intent is strategic. By opening with “As grateful as we are,” she signals respect for frontline providers and the communities that rely on them, disarming the reflexive suspicion that federal reformers don’t value local institutions. Then the pivot - “it is also important that we recognize” - shifts the burden from gratitude to realism, positioning her claim as common sense rather than ideology. The phrase “by themselves” is the tell: it implies health centers have been asked, implicitly or explicitly, to carry responsibilities that properly belong to larger structures - insurers, hospitals, employers, and government.

The subtext is a critique of political substitution. Community health centers are often invoked as the feel-good, bipartisan answer: fund clinics, celebrate access, avoid fights over coverage, pricing, and regulation. Schakowsky is calling that bluff. In the post-ACA era, with costs rising and access still uneven, the “health care crisis” isn’t just about clinics’ capacity; it’s about systemic incentives and gaps that clinics can only mitigate, not cure.

Contextually, it’s a line built for hearings and floor speeches: laud the workers, then justify broader reform. It’s not an attack on health centers; it’s an argument against letting them become America’s alibi.