Political Quotes

“If my colleagues will permit, let me offer a few closing thoughts. I so appreciate the opportunity to be on the floor with them. It was not that long ago that our President of the United States actually was a Member of this body. He was a Member of the Senate. It just seems, from time to time, we are asked to comment on the 60-vote rule. He was asked to comment on that. Here is what he said. ``Removing the 60-vote threshold would change the character of the Senate forever.'' He went on to say having majoritarian absolute power on either side was ``not what the Founders intended.'' The thing about reconciliation is this: It limits debate, it is a very abbreviated process, and it just comes in and says you are only going to get 20 hours of debate. Very limited. The second thing is it only takes a majority vote. From time to time this issue pops up. But you do not have to study the history of this great Nation very long to understand what our Founders were doing. The House is a majority body. Now, States such as Kansas and Nebraska do not fare very well in that. We do not have a lot of Members. We are never going to have as many Members as California, New York, or New Jersey. So literally on every vote you could find yourself losing. Our Founders understood that. They came up with an idea for a very unique body, a body that would be an equalizer. Every State got two. Every State got two Members.…”