Political Quotes

“This is interesting. This is interesting what has happened. They are now opposed to even Democratic Senators calling up amendments and making those pending. Why is that? Well, it appears to be, again, this consolidation of power. The American people have lost enormous power in recent years. Power has been taken away from them in at least three steps. First, it is taken away from them as power is brought away from States and local governments, where most of the power under our Federal system is supposed to reside, consistent with both the original text of the Constitution and the 10th Amendment. Second, once that power has been brought here to Washington, it has been outsourced, moved away from the American people. In yet another step, the lawmaking power gets shifted from elected lawmakers to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. Third, even when the power resides and remains within this body, once it has been moved here--in many cases where it shouldn't be--it has been consolidated excessively to a few. Here in the Senate, I often refer to this as the firm--the law firm of Schumer and McConnell. Very often, we consolidate power in the hands of a few legislative leaders to put together a bill, a bill very much like this--in fact, this very bill. And then nobody allows, apparently by agreement, for anybody to get votes on anything, even when we try to throw it open. We try to say anybody in this body gets to have their amendments made pending. They are told no.…”