Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, now we hear that the HMOs gouge and the banks gouge. I suppose lawyers and doctors and dentists gouge, and the mom-and-pop grocery store gouges and everybody else gouges. Maybe the gouges are in the free market so people can select between gouges and thus reduce the cost of goods, et cetera. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) overlooks the fact that in this competitive system that we have, that 11 percent which he mentions in the hometown, in the small town, will be very attractive to this student that I am talking about. He is not going to go to the big bank where 18 percent is charged. He has got a choice. What we are saying is that the more constraints we put on the big banks and the little banks, that student will not be able to get the 11 percent anymore because that 11 percent company is going to have to raise its interest rates if some of these artificial constraints are put on them. By his very example, he demonstrates why his motion should not carry. His motion is a constraint on the free market. His motion to instruct the conferees dampens the right and the ability of a student who requires credit to continue in college, constrains the family that needs extra credit for family needs and stability. For the economy itself, where we need fewer restraints on free enterprise, the gentleman offers even more ways to strangle it.”