Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The debate that we've been having on this rule has brought up issues that we have been bringing up this entire session. Two major questions: No. 1, where are the jobs?--we keep asking that question--and, No. 2, what is the other side afraid of? As Mr. Lungren pointed out, the bill that passed the committee passed with a bipartisan vote. People were very happy with it. They were very happy with his amendment. And yet somewhere between that committee and here, the bill was changed substantially. We assume it was changed in the Speaker's office. But we don't understand what our colleagues are afraid of. Why are they afraid of debating this amendment? They can't even allow debate on something that they don't want in a bill. And yet that's what the American people want from us. They are sick and tired of things being done behind closed doors. They want to see us debating things. They know we're going to have disagreements occasionally on philosophy, and that's fine. That's what this country's about. But people should be able to see the debate, instead of one or two people in this House making all the decisions for the 435 Members of the House. Let me say a word also about, again, the underlying bill that this rule is dealing with. The bill is not going to accomplish what our colleagues across the aisle are saying.…”