Neil Abercrombie: “I commend them to you, in conclusion, before you engage on this reckless course for which you will have to answer, read…”

“I commend them to you, in conclusion, before you engage on this reckless course for which you will have to answer, read the record as entered by Senator Byrd in 1993. I am sure his office will be happy to present you with some copies. I will be happy to do the same. We can go over the entire history of the line-item veto as practiced in other times, directly attributable to the decline and fall not just of this Nation, which is what this will be, the decline and fall of this body as a honorable body engaged in legislative practice that it should be engaged in. Let us stand up for the Constitution that we swore to uphold and defend. Do not pass this amendment and bring shame on ourselves at the very time when we say we are already willing to give up what we should be hanging onto, clinging to with dear legislative life. This amendment bespeaks the disquietude that is in this body with respect to the line-item veto. It shows that we do not really mean it. If this amendment passes, this is not a line-item veto bill. It is a legislative line-item veto bill, and we will rue the day we passed it.”