Political Quotes

“I love history, and we have been here before. We were in exactly this place in 1886. Let me read you a quote from Senator Thomas W. Palmer of Michigan on this floor in 1886. I am going to try to channel my 19th century Senator voice: Among the servants of our civilization none have approached in efficiency the railway. It has annihilated distance; it has not only made the wilderness blossom as the rose, but also has enabled the rose to be readily exchanged for the products of cities. . . . These are the modern highways for commerce, and should differ only in extent and facilities from their predecessors back to the days of the Roman roads. The point is, in the 1800s, the railroads were in a position, because of their unique nature as the highways of the time, to strangle competition and hold small businesses hostage. The situation today with the internet is almost identical, and the Senate is now going to grapple with a rapidly growing but mature industry that is central to economic opportunity in our country. Unfortunately, in both the cases of the railroads and today, the internet, often, there are players who have the means and incentives to engage in discriminatory pricing or prioritization due to the frequent existence of last-mile monopolies. It is the exact same situation. My favorite quote from Mark Twain is that ``history doesn't always repeat itself, but it usually rhymes.'' In this case, it is repeating itself.…”