Political Quotes

“I wish to address now the health care legislation we passed in the Senate and that is pending over in the House of Representatives. There is a news report that Democrats are going to use the strangest of all procedural tactics to try to pass the Senate health care bill over in the House of Representatives, and this is against a backdrop of a lot of strange things--the use of the reconciliation process, all the backroom deals that result in the various benefits for various Senators and Representatives--we have heard so much about. It almost seems Democratic leaders view the views of their constituents as an obstacle to be overcome, and every time the polls show even more opposition to the legislation, they decide to try even more clever ways of getting around their constituents' views--wheeling and dealing, backdoor legislation--but nothing quite as brazen, I guess I would say, as the process we now see developing. This is a process I became familiar with as a Member of the Senate--not when I was in the House of Representatives because I do not believe it was ever used then, although it might have been and I was not aware of it. But it is a process by which House of Representatives Members can actually say they have passed a piece of legislation without ever voting on it. You might say: That does not quite comport with what I learned in eighth grade civics class, and you would be right.…”