Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I intend to support the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum] and his bill, because it is uniform: 12 years for the House, 12 years for the Senate. I would like to give my colleagues my views of some of the things that have been mentioned. Bureaucrats and term limits: The argument is if we rotate people through this body too quickly, we empower the bureaucratic side of government. My limited experience of 2 years tells me that the most cozy relationship in the world in Washington is senior bureaucrats with senior people in Congress serving on committees, because one knows how to take care of the other, and the biggest fear most bureaucrats have is new people asking new questions. So I do not buy that one bit. What do the people think? I would challenge my colleagues to go out and ask people on the street, and they will find out that 70 percent of them support term limits in some fashion, but if we had a national referendum there would be no doubt in my mind that there would be overwhelming public support for term limits on this body. That does not mean the people who occupy the jobs are evil, it just means people paying the taxes want change in their government. What would that change be? It would fundamentally change the way we view our job in Congress. The issues of the day, like Social Security, Medicare, they are complicated but they are not beyond the grasp of everyday people to understand.”