Political Quotes

“Today is another one of those sad days in the history of the 104th Congress. Today, once again, you are seeing the Democratic minority gagged basically by the Republican majority. They are going to, by passing this rule, be able to take up legislation in the foreseeable future all the way to the 1st of April, approximately, without going through the normal process of the rules of the House. This is not new to the 104th Congress. This is a way that the 104th Congress, under Speaker Gingrich, has operated for over a year. Yet, a little over a year ago in this well, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon], the chairman of the Committee on Rules, said that we were going to have openness in this Congress, we were going to have over 75 percent of the open rules. Where is the open rule? So far this year, major legislation, the farm bill, antiterrorism, today we will finish immigration, all of those, major legislation, every one of them, closed rule, semi-closed rule. No open rule. Not letting Members who are elected by their constituents to this house, to this democratic body, any democracy at all, not letting them talk about their amendments and offer their amendments. Mr. Speaker, no, there is no democracy in this great House of Representatives. This bulwark, this great light for every other nation, we do not have democracy. We have a dictatorship, a strong dictatorship, one that rules with an iron hand and tells Members they do not have to participate.”