Barney Frank: “we've just heard one of the least persuasive arguments that we have ever heard in this body. We hear them repeatedly.…”

“we've just heard one of the least persuasive arguments that we have ever heard in this body. We hear them repeatedly. People who are opposed to doing something use the argument that we shouldn't do it, even though they're objecting to it on its own basic grounds because it doesn't go far enough. If, of course, it went far enough, they would be even more upset, Mr. Chairman. The argument that if you cannot solve every problem for everybody, you should not try to improve the situation for large numbers of people is never what people really think. It is always advanced by people who don't want fully to defend the position they take. The objection is to accommodating the many millions of Americans for whom Spanish is the primary language. I have to say, I do not understand the impulse to make life harder for others when making it easier for them has no cost to us. I represent a large number of people who speak English. Nobody has ever said to me, you know what? My life is now more difficult because people who speak primarily Spanish can get a refund. What is the impulse that drives us to object to making life easier for many of our hardworking fellow citizens in some principle when it comes at no cost to us? And by the way, I have a large number of people for whom Portuguese is a primary language.”