Political Quotes

On the recordMarch 10, 2010
I think others--maybe I will turn to Senator Brownback next. If this were a great bill, if this were the kind of legislation you wanted to take home and go out there and champion and maybe, if you are up for election, campaign on, then you would not have to go through all these gyrations and gimmicks and somersaults and cartwheels to try to get this darn thing passed. But that is exactly what is happening. I cannot wait to get up in the morning and run down and turn on the computer and see what the latest is, because they are, over there at the House, but they finally figured out that the only way to get this terrible policy enacted is to pass the Senate bill with all its warts and moles and ugliness and special deals and whatever. They have to pass it without pulling a dotted ``i'' out or a crossed ``t.'' They may be able to say back home: Folks, I didn't support that. What I wanted was the reconciliation package that would fix all these things. All I can say is reconciliation was never designed for this. This is not what reconciliation was designed for. Reconciliation was designed to bring down the budget deficit. What is happening over in the Senate are more somersaults, more gyrations, more cartwheels to figure out how to shoehorn this terrible piece of policy into a rule for which it was never designed.
Said by
Mike Johanns
Republican · Alaska
Source
govinfo.gov
Mar 10, 2010

Editor's note · Context

Senator Johanns critiques the legislative process surrounding a controversial bill.

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