Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this is another good government amendment. If we want to restore confidence, this is something we should do. It says before we vote on a bill, we are going to have at least 72 hours to read it. It is going to be available online with a CBO score so that when we cast a vote, we actually know what we are casting a vote on and we actually know how much it costs. It just says it has to be online for 72 hours. In other words, we get the privilege of reading the bills we are voting on, and we also get the privilege of knowing the financial costs of the bill or at least an estimate of the financial cost and what that will entail. This transparency is designed to make the Senate better. If we want to build confidence with the American public, then the way we build confidence is to assure them that we knew exactly what we were doing when we cast a vote, not guessing at what the consequences and the details of that legislation are. For many pieces of legislation right now, what we have seen in the last 2 or 3 years is there was no time given, no capability to study the legislation to make improvements, and many of the pieces of legislation came without the ability to modify it. If we cannot read the legislation, then we cannot amend it. What does that tell us about the legislative temperament and thoughtfulness of the Senate? We cannot read it, we don't have time to contemplate and consider it, and we cannot amend it even if we could.…”