Political Quotes

“the American system of collective bargaining is based on the balancing of interest and risk, including the right to strike, the right to maintain business operations during a strike, if necessary, by hiring replacement workers. The executive order takes away this balance in the Federal contractor arena. Permanent replacement is not the same as being fired. Permanently replaced workers have a right to be recalled until they get equivalent employment, and they may vote in union elections for 12 months. But the issue in relationship to this legislation is who has the responsibility under our form of government to legislate, who writes the laws, who passes the laws. I do not think there is anybody in this Chamber, anybody in the Congress, anybody in the United States, that does not understand under our form of government we do that, not the executive branch, and what the President has done is usurped our power, and we should guard our power jealously. The separation of powers was put together very carefully, and we should make sure that we guard that. So, the issue is who has the responsibility to legislate, who has the responsibility to pass laws, and the answer is very clearly we in the Congress of the United States.”