Political Quotes

“Ninety-six to three, in fact, for the resolution to terminate the hearings, to call for the termination on February 29. It is unfortunate we have come to this where you have a request unprecedented in the annals of Congress--unprecedented, Mr. President-- for an open-ended hearing with an additional $600,000. That brings the pricetag of this investigation to in excess of $30 million in this country. That is the reason people are upset, frankly, that kind of open-ended appropriation, no end in sight and, of course, no substantiation of any unethical or illegal behavior. When you add that to the fact that we have had virtually no hearings occurring on major issues affecting people's lives in this country, like Medicare, Medicaid--we are going to have an extensive debate on education today; we are going to be cutting $3 billion in education programs--there were hardly three or four hearings on all of education, as the Presiding Officer knows. Yet, we had 50 hearings on White water and 10 or 12 hearings on Waco and Ruby Ridge and almost none on education, none on Medicare, none on health, and you want to know why people are angry? That is why they are angry in this country. We spoke up and said, ``Look, 5 weeks, $185,000.'' That is plenty of time to complete this process. We are not saying stop it today. We are saying take another 5 weeks and wrap up the business of this committee.”