Political Quotes

“165 years ago, conservatives in this House of Representatives passed a rule banning the discussion and debate of slavery in the United States House of Representatives. In those days, former President, then Congressman, John Quincy Adams, trooped to the House floor night after night, week after week, protesting that the issues of slavery were not being debated, and he then shared letters from his constituents, many of them women who could not vote, so that Members of Congress and the American people would learn more about why he believed slavery should be abolished. In like manner today, Mr. Speaker, conservative leadership in this House of Representatives has not really allowed full debate on whether or not the Bush administration told us the truth on his reasons for taking us into Iraq; whether leaders in the Bush administration, all the way up and down, were actually leveling with the American people; whether and how the $87 billion the President has asked for should be spent, whether we should spend it. Questions and concerns about that $87 billion that the American people have raised are not being debated, and especially the concern that my constituents are expressing about the safety of our troops.”