Political Quotes

“I suspect we're about to enter into a west coast debate here. My good friend from Oregon brings a perspective a little north of California, and I would like to bring to this discussion a perspective of California. {time} 1050 For more than 30 years, California has lived under a constitutional amendment much like this constitutional amendment--a constitutional amendment that in the State of California requires a supermajority vote for raising taxes and for the budget itself. It's very similar to what is required here. The only difference is, in California, it was two- thirds; here it's 60 percent. One only need look at the extraordinary dysfunction that California has endured in the intervening 30 years since that constitutional amendment went into effect. It has become a situation in California where we went from the very best--the very, very best--education system in this Nation, both K-12 and higher education; the best infrastructure in this Nation; and the most robust economy in this Nation to one in which we've had perpetual political gridlock because of the supermajority requirement. So I bring to this House my own 35 years of experience with a constitution that does impose a supermajority but that has simply not worked to the benefit of the State of California.…”