Kendrick Meek: “if I can, before we walk too far away, before we walk too far away from what the gentleman said, the fact that he was…”

“if I can, before we walk too far away, before we walk too far away from what the gentleman said, the fact that he was here in 1983. I will tell you how this argument works. In 1983 I was in high school. I was a senior. The gentleman is still a good man. I was a senior in high school. And we know in that year it took a lot of leadership because there was a big Democratic majority here in this House and in the other body across the hall. There was a Republican in the White House, but on behalf of the American people, and there was a true crisis and the gentleman described it. And I just happen to have the vote here. Here in the House it was 243 people that voted for it, voted for that bipartisan proposal. It took leadership in this House and in the White House, and that is what it will take in this debate. In the other body, we had 58 of our colleagues down the hall, 58 of them voting for it at the time. That was a bipartisan bill. It was not something that was one sided, and that is what is wrong with this debate now. I want to make sure that Members and the American people understand. If we were in the majority, we, Democrats, that it would be a bipartisan approach because many folks do not understand, well, why are they talking about it? Why do they not just do it? Well, we want to do it. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), our Democratic leader, wants to do it. The gentleman from New York (Mr.…”