Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as both of my colleagues have indicated, this amendment expresses the sense of the Senate about the Financial Accounting Standards Board, a little known but powerful entity--and the occupant of the chair may not know this--which actually exists in Norwalk, CT. Our expression here is a sense of the Senate that FASB, as it is known, should drop its highly controversial stock option proposal and maintain the current generally accepted accounting treatment for employee stock options. To the listener this may seem like a lot of technical, arcane accounting jargon. Stock options seem themselves far away. But this is real stuff and it relates directly to the ability of new companies to raise capital; the ability of new companies to create jobs; the ability of new companies and older companies to attract the best employees. And part of the attraction is to offer them a stake in the company, a piece of the ownership. Stock options are a remarkable and uniquely American device for literally spreading the wealth, for creating a broad class of owners in companies that are starting up and those that are well along in their history.”