Political Quotes

“if the Federal Trade Commission had jurisdiction over our legislative processes, I think that this would probably be cited as a bait and switch proposition. I read the resolution and it consists largely of a number of very good reasons why we should not do favors for and make concessions to and trade on these terms with the Chinese People's Republic. It is a long list of the great grievances which we have against the Chinese People's Republic. Then we come into the last page, in which, having shaken our fist at them and listed all the terrible things we do, we unleash our weapon: Hearings. Now, I appreciate the fact that hearings can sometimes be a nuisance if you are the Secretary of an American Cabinet department. The notion that we are going to have hearings might be a problem. but the threat of hearings in this situation seems to me to be of quite minimal effect on the Chinese. So I would have to say, and I will yield to the gentleman if he would yield me some of his time, because I only have 2 minutes and he had 8 and some odd minutes left, but at this point I would say it does appear to me that any resemblance between this and a serious piece of legislation is entirely coincidental. The notion that the Chinese, having compiled this very long record of violating agreements and abusing people and getting the better of us economically, would really be upset because we are going to have hearings seems to me to be quite minimal.”