Political Quotes

“I will just comment for 3 minutes on the speech by my colleague from Arkansas. Then I want to yield to the Senator from Pennsylvania. First of all, 80 percent of what he had to say, believe it or not, supports the balanced budget amendment rather than negates it because he is talking about all our deficiencies. I voted with him on that 1981 Reagan tax cut. I voted with him on the majority of those things up on that board. In terms of waiting, when we say it is 2001, we are going to wait until 2001, the reality is every Member here, whether they are for my amendment or against it, if it passes, we know it is going through the House; we know it is going to be adopted by the States. We are going to start work on it right away so that we get on a glide path. We know that. In terms of it taking 60 votes in time of recession, since 1962 we have passed 11 stimulus packages in the United States Senate. Every one of those passed by more than 60 votes. We can do that. And in terms of a majority not being able to get things done, in the Constitution there are 8 exceptions right now to the majority controlling things. When James Madison proposed a Bill of Rights, one of Alexander Hamilton's arguments initially opposing it was you are taking power away from the majority, and James Madison talked about majority abuses. Anyone who looks at this deficit for 25 years in a row, the kinds of things the Senator is talking about, that is why we need some special provisions here.…”