Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding. I spoke yesterday on this issue. My good friend, Mr. Goodlatte, and I have talked a number of times about this. In 1995, as I said yesterday, I voted for an amendment very similar to this, almost exactly like it. I had a confidence at that point in time that, in an emergency, three-fifths of us would come together and vote to do that which the country needed to keep it stable and safe. Regrettably, over the 16 years, I have lost that confidence. I've lost that confidence this year, where, frankly, on the majority's side of the aisle we would not have passed a CR to keep the government open once. We wouldn't have passed it a second time; and, very frankly, had we had to rely on the votes solely of the majority side, as we have in the past on my side, we would have defaulted on our debt. That is not a good context in which to adopt an amendment that puts the country at risk if three-fifths are not available to act in an emergency. As a result, I will not vote for this amendment, and I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. We are engaged at this very day in an effort to try to come to agreement on how we balance the budget; and, very frankly, we only need 51 percent, and 51 percent is not there. But we have balanced the budget, and we balanced it without an amendment. We balanced it in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001. And my Republican colleagues rightfully say, ``Well, we offered those budgets.'' Yes, they did.…”