Political Quotes

“while there may be some provisions in the Menendez substitute that are worthy of discussion during conference, I still rise in opposition to his amendment. Our review of the Commission's report was performed with a seriousness and a deliberation that is worthy of the subject and the task. The preparatory effort included full committee hearings, scores of briefings by the administration and others on the range of issues, the input of many experts, and days and weeks of effort devoted to gathering the requisite information. From this, we developed what we believe are measures necessary to give form and meaning to the often diaphanous wording of each of the Commission's recommendations that fell within our committee's jurisdiction. The Menendez substitute offers little more than a mere restatement of the Commission's recommendations, and the unspoken premise that difficult problems can be easily solved by the simple expedient of throwing money at them. We have no shortage of examples of government programs where this approach not only failed, but actually rendered our problems worse. Here, the greatest danger stems from the complacency that will result from our merely having increased spending while congratulating ourselves for having taken swift action. Instead, as authors of H.R. 10, we crafted practical solutions to fulfill the recommendations.”