Roy Cooper: “I would hope that the listeners could see through the rather emphatic rhetoric of my good friend from Pennsylvania…”

“I would hope that the listeners could see through the rather emphatic rhetoric of my good friend from Pennsylvania, because may I remind him that the conference committee has not even bothered to meet on this issue. The Senate is controlled by Republicans, the House is controlled by Republicans, and they have not found time in the last 93 days to meet on this issue. Let me read the quote from the White House Press Secretary: ``The President wants to sign the Senate legislation,'' not the House legislation, the Senate legislation, ``and hopes that Congress will get it to him quickly.'' This was on June 9 of this year. ``The President believes that what the Senate has done is the right thing to do, a good thing to do, and he wants to sign it.'' So cut through all the rhetoric, cut through all the b.s. I have not seen a Committee on Ways and Means majority member carrying this much heavy water since they tried to defend the police action taken by a member of that committee a month or so ago, only to have the chairman of the committee come to this floor to apologize for his action. Do the right thing. Do what the White House has asked you to do. Do what the Senate has passed 94 to 2. Are Republicans compassionate? Can they govern this country? Can they be decent to our own children? That is the issue we are debating tonight.”