Political Quotes

“I want you to know I mean no disrespect to you personally or to the institution, but the notion that somehow welfare has any role in this debate is asinine. My colleagues know and we know, as do those watching know, certainly our colleagues in the Senate know, that everyone we are discussing today with regard to this child tax credit are working people. The welfare reform package that passed this Congress passed before I got here, so it is easy for me to say I would have voted for it, since I was not here. But I can assure my colleagues that my votes since that time are consistent with that. Now, I appreciate the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) coming down here, but what he did, I think, was to lay out pretty clearly for those on our side and the other side just the difference in priorities. Our priorities differ in great ways from the Republicans. Many of us like tax cuts; my Republican colleagues like tax cuts. We think tax cuts should benefit more people, the Republicans think they should benefit a lesser group of people. No disrespect to you. Do not mean to ridicule my colleagues personally, but there are complete differences in priorities and realities. The reality is what we are discussing today. People earning $25,000 a year or less make up a good portion of America. Frankly, those of us on this floor, that is a fraction of what we earn year in and year out.”