Political Quotes

“What concerns me--and why I want to make this statement before we vote it--is the irony of what we are doing at this hour of the night. We have spent the past several days, the past several weeks, debating an amendment of the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget. I support that amendment and look forward to voting for it on Tuesday. In the midst of that debate, we now at this hour are going to take up legislation to extend the airline ticket tax, which has been expired for 10 of the past 14 months. I support that. We should reenact the airline ticket tax. In my opinion, we should not have allowed it to expire as we have. But what is significant about what we are about to do is that we are extending the airline ticket tax to September 30, 1997. Why are we doing that? Is it because we do not need the resources of this revenue source beyond September 30, 1997? Clearly not. There are extensive needs in the national aviation system.”