Political Quotes

“we are seeing over these next couple of days one of the most complete degradations of the legislative process I have ever been sorry enough to witness. I am a supporter of product liability reform. I voted in the last Congress for medical malpractice reform. I voted for caps. I was prepared to support a good product liability bill, but the procedure and the substance to which we are going to be subjected over the next couple of days are so degraded and degrading and I cannot be part of it. In the first place, we have the great inconsistency of people talking about States' rights. And the gentleman from Illinois said, Well, we are being inconsistent. No, most of us have not claimed to be either consistently for States' rights or Federal rights. Many of us have said, You look at it issue by issue and you see what makes the most sense. The Republican Party that has clothed itself in States' rights garb until and unless their corporate allies decide they want it differently and then they change. And when the corporate allies say, Do not let States experiment with single-payer health insurance, don't amend ERISA, they say, OK. And when we federalize tort law, they say, OK, especially when it has nothing to do with manufacturing. We heard a great rationale from the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. This is all about manufacturing. The gentleman said in the Rules Committee, This is about exports. We don't export Little Leaguers.…”