Political Quotes

“I hope we will vote this bill down. We are going to balance the budget. We are going to severely limit Federal spending. If you spend military dollars at the rate that this bill calls for, you inevitably will diminish substantially our ability to clean up the environment, to provide medical care for people who need it, to help provide public safety in our cities, to help deal with education for middle-income and working class students. There simply is not enough money to do both what this bill would do and that. Fortunately, the gentleman from California who heads the minority on this committee has articulately and eloquently over the years, and again today, pointed that out; and that leaves me free to focus on one of the most obnoxious aspects of this bill. I admire the fact that the President singled it out when he originally vetoed it. I am very disappointed that it survives. That is the legislation that says, if you are a young man or woman who volunteered to serve your country and you contract a terrible illness, the illness of being HIV-positive, your country will reward your volunteering and your good service by kicking you out. Any service you have accumulated will count for nothing if you are not eligible for a pension. Fortunately, the Senate intervened a little bit to temper the gratuitous cruelty of the House bill to say that you should at least get some medical benefits. But cruel it remains.”