Political Quotes

“this bill before us is an act of legislative barbarism. This is an act of extortion being leveraged on the U.S. Senate right before Christmas. Make no mistake why this happens. This bill, in all 4,155 pages of its glory or infamy, was negotiated in secret by four or five Members of Congress, excluding all others, which means that nearly 330 million Americans were disenfranchised in the production of this legislative behemoth. They wrote it utterly in secret, with the design of creating an artificial emergency, threatening a shutdown right before Christmas. In fact, they set up government funding to expire the day before Christmas Eve, realizing that that is when Members are at our point of vulnerability. Members of both Houses and both political parties want to get home, understandably, to spend the holidays with their families. It is also the moment when they realize that our constituents are most vulnerable, most fearful of something like a government shutdown. That is when the most pressure will be brought to bear on Members of the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, if, Heaven forbid, there were a shutdown. So at this time of manufactured crisis, it is said that that is the right moment to unveil this bill that they have drafted in secret. The part that is stunning is that enough Members of the U.S. Senate-- a body that prides itself on being this world's greatest deliberative body--would choose to support this bill, never having read it.…”