Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Democratic leader has just outlined the issue that is before us today. I want to put it into some context. The first thing I want to say is that what we are talking about today is the most fundamental of American economic principles--free-market competition. Free-market competition is what we are talking about here. Now, as the Democratic leader outlined, for 135 years, our electrical system worked basically in the same way that it works today. It has worked because of central powerplants, wires, distribution and transmission systems, and homes. Homes and businesses and offices were the passive receptors of electricity. The utilities have done a wonderful job. I have worked with them over the years. They have done a complex job where the power has to be there when the switch is thrown. They have done a terrific job of serving the American public, but what the American public wants is not necessarily electricity itself, it wants what electricity can do. A friend of mine once said, for example, that in this country every year, 5 million people buy quarter-inch drills, but nobody wants quarter-inch drills. What they want are holes. What the American people want are microwaves and televisions and computers and electricity and hot water in their homes. How that power comes is really not what they are concerned with, but they do want options. A revolution has occurred.…”