Political Quotes

“Madam President, I thank my colleague from New Mexico for his leadership on the constitutional option. Some may ponder how it is that we have come to have this constitutional argument at this moment. As he has noted, under the Constitution, this body is empowered to organize itself. That is not that those who spoke 100 years ago or 50 years ago get to tell us how to operate but that we today in this Chamber have the power of the Constitution to organize ourselves. There is little question from constitutional scholars about this understanding of the very plain words written by our forefathers as they designed this institution. Indeed, they were clear, when supermajority requirements were set--supermajority for overriding a Presidential veto, supermajority for impeachment, supermajority for treaties--but a simple majority to pass bills, a simple majority to pass amendments, a simple majority to adopt the rules by which we function. Indeed, that is exactly what the first Congress did. They used a simple majority to adopt their rules, and they extended to each other a courtesy to hear each other out, those 26 Senators coming from 13 States. They heard each other out so they could make better decisions. Over time that courtesy has grown to be informally entrenched in a Senate rule that says shutting down debate takes a supermajority.…”