Political Quotes

“the budget agreement reached on Thursday evening was celebrated by both parties in competing press conferences, and there may well be much to commend in the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act. The trouble is, how would anyone know? According to a wire service report on Friday, the bill was ``expected to be more than one foot thick.'' In fact, it is closer to two feet thick, and contains some 4,000 pages. Will any Senator or Representative know what's in that monster bill when it is passed shortly--as is now inevitable? Of course not. Yet in recent years we are given to feel that even to ask such a question is to reveal an embarrassing naivete. Last year, as Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance, I was Floor Manager during Senate consideration of an 820-page bill somewhat unconvincingly entitled the ``Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.'' While it was pending before the Senate, the only copy of the bill present on the Senate floor was on the Democratic Manager's desk, having been obtained by our resourceful and learned Minority Chief Tax Counsel, Mr. Nick Giordano.”