Byron Dorgan: “I hope all of us have thought through some New Year's resolutions, one of which ought to be for all of us in the…”

“I hope all of us have thought through some New Year's resolutions, one of which ought to be for all of us in the Congress, both in the House and the Senate, and for all of us on both sides of the political aisle, to see if we cannot, in 1996, solve problems rather than create problems. It has been a year in which we have had shutdowns, threatened defaults, and chaos, and a year in which there were days when this looked a lot more like a food fight than it did serious legislating in the U.S. Congress. I think most of us coming back would believe it would serve the country's interests if there were less rancor, if there were a little more understanding, and if we turned down the volume just a bit. It does not mean that these are not very important issues that are being debated. But it does mean you cannot, in a democracy, create a situation where you say, 'Here is the way we approach our legislative duties. You are all wrong, and we are all right.' That does not make sense. That is not the way it works. One side is not all right and the other side is not all wrong. There are good ideas on both sides of the political aisle. But you cannot, in this process, say it is all or nothing, it is our way or no way, and we have seen too much of that in 1995.”