Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding and thank him for his leadership in this debate this afternoon. I have been listening to it very intently. I heard the debate on the rule this morning and then the debate this afternoon. Some questions have arisen. First, I want to state a fact. The fact is that every single one of us in this body as our first act raises our right hand to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. The bill that we have on the floor before us does violence to those provisions in the Constitution that describe how to pass a bill--not by one House deeming it, but, as our distinguished assistant leader, Mr. Clyburn, described his daughter's schoolchildren in her class could tell you that you pass one House, you pass another House, it's signed by the President. But that seems to be missed by the makers of this resolution today. Again, Mr. Clyburn talked about the constitutional authority to bring this bill to the floor. It's truly a mystery how you can take an oath of office to defend the Constitution of the United States, bring a bill to the floor in violence of that, and justify it constitutionally. I've heard the distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee, Mr. Dreier, say that we have some visiting parliamentarians here who are watching this debate to see if Congress can get its job done. Please don't pay attention to this. What you see on the floor today is no example of democracy in action. It's silly.…”