Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I had hoped we had put the idea of changing the Senate filibuster rule to bed when two Members of the Democratic Party in the Senate pledged to oppose any attempt to abolish the filibuster, but, unfortunately, the Democrat leader has revived this idea and has said that he plans to hold a vote on changing the filibuster rule on or before January 17. Democrats have offered a lot of bad ideas over the past year--a lot of bad ideas. But it is possible that abolishing the filibuster is by far the worst. Abolishing the filibuster would mean fundamentally changing the character of the Senate and removing one of the most significant protections for minority rights in our system of government. Our Founders recognized that it wasn't just Kings who could be tyrants. They knew majorities could be tyrants, too, and that a majority, if unchecked, could trample the rights of the minority. And so the Founders combined majority rule with both representation and constitutional protections for the minority. They established safeguards, checks and balances throughout our government, to keep the government in check and ensure that the rights of the minority were protected. And one of those safeguards was the U.S. Senate. In the House of Representatives, majority rule is emphasized, and the Founders could have left it at that. They could have stuck with a single legislative body. But they didn't. Why?…”