Political Quotes

“This is a fair rule, and it is not unprecedented. This is the way we have handled bills that get as involved as this one. There are before the Committee on Rules at this time 176 amendments that we are trying to deal with. It is impossible to deal with all of that in the so-called one ball-of-wax. What we are trying to do is get a crime bill passed as expeditiously as possible. It makes, to me at least, common sense that we go ahead and take care of the general debate. What will be made in order will be voted on this House, whether it be one more rule, two more rules, or three more rules. I cannot think of a fairer way to do it. You know, I do not think there is a more important bill that comes before or that is going to come before this Congress. We are daily giving up our freedom in this country or ours. For over 200 years we have been known as the land of the free. We are no longer the land of the free because we are no longer free to walk the streets and byways of this country without fear of great bodily harm to ourselves and to our families and to our friends. There is no more important bill than this. I hope that we are going to make some concrete steps forward. You know, we have more people incarcerated in prisons in this country per capita than any other nation in the world, and we keep building them. We cannot build them fast enough. But it does not seem to help the crime rate.”