Barney Frank: “The words to live by include the one the gentleman from Illinois so conveniently forgot to mention, ``if'', as the…”

“The words to live by include the one the gentleman from Illinois so conveniently forgot to mention, ``if'', as the gentleman first read it. It said, if we are going to block grant it, I want to do it for you. Saying ``if we block grant it, I want to do it his way'' is not saying ``I want to block grant it.'' The gentleman has, of course, testified to the importance of that ``if'' by quite consciously and deliberately leaving it out. So what we have is the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt] saying if we block grant it, we give it to the mayors. And what we still have is a partisan effort to disrupt an ongoing program with a transparently inconsistent obeisance to States rights which the Republicans will be violating tomorrow.”