Joe Crowley: “who are we kidding? We are not kidding the American people. They get this. They know that if we pass this substitute or…”

“who are we kidding? We are not kidding the American people. They get this. They know that if we pass this substitute or any of 10 amendments by the majority, that, for all practical purposes, we will have killed Shays-Meehan and true campaign finance reform for this year. You talk about cooking something up at the last minute. My understanding is our side of the aisle only got notice of this substitute at 1 a.m. this morning. It is unfortunate, but if the sponsors of this substitute really wanted to be actively engaged in this process, they should have done it earlier, and many of their proposals quite possibly could have been included in the ultimate Shays-Meehan bill. But they failed to do that, and we find ourselves now with this substitute before us. I say we vote it down, we pass Shays-Meehan, and bring real campaign finance reform to the people of this so-deserving country.”