Political Quotes

“First, we should not be legislating on appropriations bills. We are getting to a point that we cannot pass appropriations bills for all the legislation that is on the appropriations bills, especial something of this magnitude. I understand how easy it is to talk emotionally about children, but there are two things wrong with this amendment. One, it is not relevant, because under the unanimous consent agreement that these would be relevant amendments, this is not. So you have a point there. Second, there is a budget point of order that will be made against the amendment, and therefore we should go ahead and, I guess, get rid of it. But this is just nibbling again. The bill I wanted to try to get through here did not go. I wanted to take care of my farmers a little bit, but no one seems to think about those. It makes it a little bit hard to take. But the amendment invites us to reopen the tobacco debate, and I do not think this is the time or the place. What is next, liability limitations? That would be quite a debate. What next, tax increases? That would be a real debate. What next, new programs? That is what we have here, new programs. We began debating this bill on June 18, 4 weeks ago. It is time we stopped considering legislative amendments that go way beyond the scope of this bill.”