Timothy Penny: “If I might ask for the gentleman to yield again, our forefathers had it right. They envisioned a Congress in which the…”

“If I might ask for the gentleman to yield again, our forefathers had it right. They envisioned a Congress in which the divergent views of a diverse Nation would be brought to bear on the debate within this very Chamber, and that by our example in reaching a consensus on critical issues, profoundly important to the Nation's future, we would convey to the American public that same sense of cooperation and consensus and togetherness and teamwork, but we exhibit that behavior far too infrequently here in the halls of Congress, and I do not think it is any surprise that the country today seems as divided and torn and distressed within many of our Nation's communities, because leaders at the top do not set the right example of working together for the common good. And so we essentially convey to everyone that you are on your own; cooperation, conciliation, accommodation is an infringement on your individual rights. There is no larger goal, there is no larger purpose; get your own; get it while the getting is good. We have to be better than that. I think our Founding Fathers intended that we be better than that.”