Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Michigan. A year ago, our Republican friends talked about reforming the process so that we wouldn't have legislation that was in a ``must-pass'' category that was laden with items that were unrelated or unnecessarily complicated. Well, here we are, less than a year after they adopted their rules, and we have legislation that is just that. Unemployment insurance has always been, I think, in times of economic stress, when benefits are threatened to expire, must-pass legislation. If you ask the American public, being able to keep $1,000 or more in the pockets of the average family, by keeping the payroll tax reduction, that would be must-pass legislation. And the SGR, the sustainable growth rate problem, to avoid a draconian cut in physician reimbursement--which I mercifully say I did not support when it was proposed by my Republican friends and enacted into law some 15 years ago--that is certainly must- pass legislation. And here we have a hodgepodge of jamming all of these together, plus--wait a minute--the Keystone pipeline, a variety of things that are complicated, expensive, and unfair, jammed together in a must-pass legislative situation. Mr. Speaker, I am opposed to draconian cuts in benefit levels. In a State like mine, it's going to be very hard on rural and small-town America, where those extended benefits make a big difference. The jobs aren't there.…”