Byron Dorgan: “we are never going to be accused of legislative speeding around here. It is fascinating to me that this bill has been…”

“we are never going to be accused of legislative speeding around here. It is fascinating to me that this bill has been kicking around for what, 10 months or so? And all of a sudden in the last couple of minutes we are dealing with $1 billion a minute, if I get 2 minutes. If I get $1 billion a minute, and he gets $1 billion a minute, it is a $2 billion tax break provided in the closing minutes of a conference report. Gosh. Month after month after month has gone by. Then all of sudden we have to get to the intersection in a nanosecond. That is fine. Some days I might have objected, but I am in such an awfully good mood today that I am persuaded to speak for 2 or 3 minutes and then sit down. First point: It is not going to kill the bill if we dump a $2 billion provision stuck in the middle of this piece of legislation by folks that didn't want a debate on it, didn't want votes in the House or the Senate on it. Getting rid of that provision won't kill the bill. Do not be fooled by that. Nobody is talking about killing this bill. We are just talking about taking a sow's ear out of this bill. You know the old saying in my area, which is farm country, ``You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.'' There is nothing in this provision that you can make a silk purse out of, I guarantee you. This was not done in the regular way.”