Sam Gejdenson: “Mr. Chairman, the people of this country watching this debate, as few or many as they are, obviously feel some…”

“Mr. Chairman, the people of this country watching this debate, as few or many as they are, obviously feel some confusion. Everyone gets up and claims that they have the product that personifies reform, and, as you look through history, leaders good and bad, propositions decent and evil, all claim to be reform. It is a hard cut. I think Lenin, Stalin and Brezhnev all claimed that they brought reform to the Russian people. I can tell you what will create the most change, what will take power away from those that have too much and will give some power back to the people, and that is Shays-Meehan. The discussion of integrity in the process, and I forget which gentleman raised the issue, and I am sure he is earnest, oversimplifies the situation. Many of us in this Chamber cosponsored and introduced a number of bills. The Farr bill is a bill that I have worked on for almost 10 years now. I did not vote for it; I would not have voted for it if it came up for a vote, because we are in the process that the Republican leadership of the House has set up intentionally to make it very difficult to get a bill that has any chance in the other body of succeeding. The only way to do that is to vote down the freshman bill, do not vote for any of the other bills, as we have not, and then pass Shays-Meehan. Lastly, I would say to the American people that this debate would be awfully discouraging.”