Political Quotes

“Madam President, over the last few days, I have spent a good chunk of my waking hours trying to find some common ground, some opportunity to bring both sides together. I have repeatedly put specifics on paper and provided those specifics to the proponents of this legislation. By and large--and I believe there is a little bit of a Senate code when one talks around here--the response has been: They have 75 votes, and that is kind of it. But I have been trying to deal with the issues that have been raised. For example, my colleague from Illinois sincerely believes that unless Oregon's small businesses are not coerced into enforcing out-of- state laws, that Oregon is going to become a small business haven. He says Oregon has to be coerced by this bill or it is going to be a small business haven. I would just say to my colleagues that is not the reality of what we see in the Pacific Northwest every day. Washington State has a sales tax. Oregon does not have a sales tax. So if my colleague from Illinois was right, we would be seeing moving vans all the time coming across the borders from Washington State to Oregon because somehow Oregon was going to be an Internet tax haven. We all know States rights means States take different approaches with respect to this issue. To me, what we ought to be looking at are approaches that bring people together.…”