Chuck Schumer: “I would like to make 2 points. One, the desperate need for campaign finance reform. It hit me about 7-8 years ago. My…”

“I would like to make 2 points. One, the desperate need for campaign finance reform. It hit me about 7-8 years ago. My best friend came down and worked in the Congress for 3 months, one of my best friends, and he is a smart and sensitive person. I asked him at the end of the three months, we went out to dinner and I said, ``Well, Mark, what do you think of the Congress?'' He said there was good news and bad news. He said the good news was that the quality of the people was much better than he ever imagined. He thought the staffs were better than anything he had seen in business or law or anything else. He said the bad news what it all did not matter because the way we finance campaigns vitiated the entire system. Mr. Speaker, tonight does not do justice to that problem. Four quick bills put on suspension, calculated, carefully crafted to simply get the issue off their back; it is not right, it is not fair. Sooner or later, I do not know if it will be sooner or whether it will be later, but they will pay the price for trying to play a game with a very serious issue. The second point I would like to make is the one also made by my colleague from New York (Mr. Owens), this idea that there should be choice applies to labor unions but not to corporations. What hypocrisy.”