Political Quotes

“I served as chairman of the conference on the line-item veto. It was a difficult, contentious, hotly contested conference. We argued and debated over the issues long and hard. It took us a year, yes, it took us longer than any of us would have wanted. It was not a partisan matter; in fact, there are those who support line-item veto, the gentleman from Utah being one of the staunchest supporters of the line-item veto on both sides of the aisle and in both Chambers, so this is not a partisan issue. But what we finally arrived at, I think, is the best that we can get. One of the items that was agreed to was an effective date. That was only finally resolved because there was an agreement reached between the President of the United States and the majority leader of the Senate to depoliticize the issue. Mr. Speaker, I would point out that to change the effective date now would really put this right square in the middle of the Presidential debate. I think it would clearly distort what we are trying to do here.”