Political Quotes

“I am someone who has never voted against trade legislation on this floor. But unfortunately, the President and the Republican leadership have missed an opportunity to move beyond the partisan and narrow ideological divide. The provisions of the bill of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) which dealt with labor standards, multilateral environmental agreements and the elimination of the chapter 11 imbalance could have produced a bill which would have provided 250 ``yes'' votes on this floor. But, instead, we are not even allowed to vote on it. We are only given 30 minutes to debate it. It is a travesty. Instead, the majority will be created by horse trading on citrus, on textiles, and on whatever else we will find out when we read the paper over the next 1 or 2 weeks. It is a terrible way to create trade policy. At a time when our Nation expects the best, we are falling short. It is shameful, it is unnecessary. I urge a ``no'' vote. Come back, do it right. There will be an opportunity.”