Political Quotes

“when I return home to my State during our district work periods--the time when the Senate is not in session--as I get a chance to travel my State, as the Presiding Officer does in his, I always feel as though I learn something, and I appreciate a little bit more how different policies can have a different impact and produce different results. As the distinguished Senator from Wisconsin was speaking about the importance of education, I couldn't help but think that we all agree with that, but we have maybe some differences on which policies actually produce a better result. I couldn't help but think a little bit about that last week as I was visiting some of the ranchers and folks in west Texas in the ag sector who were very interested in what we were doing here in Washington on trade promotion authority, as we have worked with the President on a bipartisan basis to pass this structure by which the next big trade agreement--the Trans-Pacific Partnership--will be considered and voted on. I do have a bias. I think experiments in policy are best conducted at the State level, not at the national level. We have seen, for example, as the Presiding Officer knows, a huge experiment in health care reform where, under the Affordable Care Act, one-sixth of our economy was effectively commandeered by the Federal Government in a one-size-fits- all approach. Of course, the results were much worse than even its most ardent opponents predicted.…”