John Shaw: “I think we are, and I sense that we are, right here in one of the finest hours of this Congress. We are taking one of…”

“I think we are, and I sense that we are, right here in one of the finest hours of this Congress. We are taking one of the thorniest, most difficult political issues for all of the Members on both sides, and we are opening up the rule to this extent. I think it is truly remarkable and speaks very well of the leadership in this Congress and the faith that the Republicans, as the majority, has in the Democrats as the minority. We are not only allowing a second bill to be introduced and we are not only allowing the motion to reconsider, but also we are also relaxing the dollar figure because this is a reconciliation process. Under the rules the minority party could have been absolutely shut out of this process by simply saying, 'Adhere to the rules, and the rules means you've got to save $60 billion.' This was not done, and I think that is absolutely in the absolute tradition of fairness. Now we are going to be faced with a bill that is a substitute. Interestingly enough, both the Republican bill and the substitute that is going to be offered here today in the entitlement of welfare; that is a quantum leap.”