Political Quotes

“it is sort of with mixed emotions that I am here on the floor to talk about this tax bill. In one sense, I am very happy we are moving forward with the Tax Increase Protection Act. At the same time, I am at somewhat of a loss as to why we are spending 2, 3, and maybe more days of the Senate's time for something that is traditionally done when there is comity and cooperativeness in the Senate by unanimous consent, putting in a substitute Senate-passed bill for the House bill and go to conference. That is something we do routinely here, almost daily. We have disagreements with the House, and we simply go through the procedure of moving to conference and having those differences worked out. Unfortunately, we are at a time here where even routine things become weeklong labors to accomplish them. That does not reflect well on the Senate. I don't believe it accomplishes anything other than to delay other matters that are to come before the Senate. We have a very important bill dealing with an issue that is of vital importance to my State--many manufacturing jobs in my State--and that is the asbestos debacle going on throughout the courts in this country where over half of the money paid out by corporations in asbestos claims has gone to lawyers.…”