Political Quotes

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I appreciate my colleagues' commitment to this issue and to their constituents. As you know, this legislation has been before us for some time now, and there is controversy over it. This bill would retroactively reinstate pension benefits for a small subset of participants whose pensions have already been transferred to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, or PBGC. That would create a precedent that other plans would follow. The PBGC exists specifically to cover pension benefits if a plan is terminated. So we should let the system work. This system does not require taxpayer dollars for a bailout or for whatever one would like to call it. That is part of the reason for the objection. We also have an obligation to be deliberate in how we spend taxpayer money. Before we inject more money into the system, we should explore the implications of this bill, which brings me to my final point. The Finance Committee has not held a hearing--not a single hearing, let alone a markup--on this bill. The Finance Committee exists to examine proposals such as this and to provide all Senators an opportunity to weigh in.…”