Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I thank, as always, my good friend for a spirited and thoughtful debate. He always makes good points. Frankly, I always find myself more comfortable when we are on the same side--as we occasionally are--than when we are on opposite sides. My friend has made many valuable contributions to this institution, particularly pushing us relentlessly in the right direction of reclaiming our war-making authority. Having said that, it is always great to call for a new system, a new way, or a return to open rules without admitting you are the ones that abandoned them. We actually tried to restore them. I regret we failed in that, quite frankly, but I will have to say both sides have gotten used to not doing open rules because they don't want to cast tough votes. That is why my friends abandoned the open rule process when they were in the majority in 2009, and, honestly, that is why we abandoned it last year. I regret that. I will work with my friend probably not today but going forward in trying to reclaim that because I think when we lost it, we diminished the power of every individual Member in Congress. We thought we were protecting them, but the reality is they now can no longer come to the floor as an individual and present their own idea. But at least in this case there are 72 amendments. The majority of them are from my friend's side of the aisle.…”