Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I said to Senator Inhofe I will be no more than 10 minutes and I appreciate his courtesy and his being here. I rise in opposition to the Hatch amendment. I respect and appreciate my colleague from Utah and his proposal to negotiate a solution with China and other nations on currency. I have worked with him on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, as the Presiding Officer has, and I appreciate his concern on all these issues and his wide range of knowledge. My firm belief, however, is his amendment is not going to work. I know he generally does not want to take the same direction we do in standing up to the Chinese. I think, when we talk about multilateral negotiation, we are pretty much saying to the Chinese: Please stop the strategy, however unfair and in violation of international norms, that has helped your country accumulate enormous wealth. Please stop. We hope you will stop. Please stop, or we are saying please stop what Fred Bergsten says is the ``most protectionist policy any major country has taken since World War II.'' We have tried this. We now have the ability to do multilateral negotiations. Senator Hatch is right. The administration has not particularly led on that. He is also right to add that the Bush administration also did not particularly lead on that. Before that, the Clinton administration did not particularly lead on that. We have the ability, without amendment No.…”