Political Quotes

“I rise today with several of my distinguished colleagues, including Senator Paul Simon, Senator Chuck Grassley, and Senator Max Baucus, to introduce a historic measure, a bill to permanently restore nondiscriminatory treatment to the products of Romania. We are joined by Representatives Phil Crane, Sam Gibbons, and Barbara Kennelly in the House who are also introducing this same bill in that body today. On December 22, 1989, Romania emerged from years of brutal Communist dictatorship and began its careful journey toward democracy and free markets. By 1991, Romania had approved a new Constitution and elected a Parliament, laying a foundation for a modern parliamentary democracy. This year will mark the second nationwide Romanian Presidential election under the new Constitution. Romania's economic legacy of extreme centralization, an oppressive Communist government and a stifling bureaucracy gave it one of the longest paths to reach a functioning market economy of any of the emerging democracies of Central Europe. Nonetheless, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, after many years of difficult work, much of the necessary legislative framework for a market economy is in place.”