Cord Byrd: “the very able Senator from Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy, has led this fight to increase the minimum wage time and time and…”

“the very able Senator from Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy, has led this fight to increase the minimum wage time and time and time again. I admire him for it. Yes, this administration has joined in the maiming and the raping of the Constitution and the rules of the Senate and in doing as it did with respect to the items that were changed in conference, the items that were added in conference, the items that passed each of the two Houses and were deleted in conference. What a shame. What a disgrace. I have been a Member of Congress 51 years, going into 52 years, and I have never seen such a disgraceful act as that which was done while you, the American working people out there, were asleep--were asleep. These changes were being made behind closed doors. The minority was not present. What would John Taber, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee when I came to the House--what would he think of this underhanded method of operating? What would Joe Martin, Speaker of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts in that day--what would he think? The Republicans of that day would not have stood for it. They believed in the American system. They believed in the Constitution. This is a disgrace. It is a shame, the way this Congress has acted, the way the Republican leadership in both Houses, and the White House, has acted in dealing with the taxpayers' money, the working people, the common people.”