Political Quotes

“I, too, rise and commend our colleague from Indiana for this amendment. I am proud to be a cosponsor of the amendment, along with a number of my colleagues. To use the language in another situation, this is indeed a very modest proposal. This is prospective. It affects none of the sanctions that are presently in place. As the Senator from Indiana has rightly pointed out, sanctions are a very effective and useful tool when applied well. I think the threat of sanctions may have an even greater impact in utility. I certainly agree with him on that. What he is merely asking us to support today is that when a proposed sanction is being suggested by the executive branch--by the way, I wish we were applying this to ourselves because too often, when the Congress of the United States offers sanctions legislation, which is oftentimes where these bills originate, we should also be asking the question of what is the cost-benefit effect of this proposal. It doesn't say don't impose the sanction. In fact, there may be situations that arise when, in fact, the outrage is so egregious that is the subject of the sanction that we would be more than willing to pay the economic price to impose it. This amendment does not preclude that result. It merely suggests that we have some ability to make an analysis of what that relationship would be and to ask for a few days to allow for objective analysis of what the sanction cost might be.”