Lloyd Bentsen: “last night this House proclaimed its intentions to pursue a course of reform. Member after Member asserted they were…”

“last night this House proclaimed its intentions to pursue a course of reform. Member after Member asserted they were acting on the will of the people and taking the lead to change the way we do business. Fair enough, but let us not stop, let us not recess, but move on and tackle the issues which the people of the 25th District desire to be addressed--a lobbyist gift ban and campaign finance reform. My constituents want to change business as usual--end free trips, curb the influence of special interests, reform campaign finance, and stop the money chase. You cannot have one without the other. I just defeated a man who spent $3 million of his own money. As long as we engage in a bidding war for campaign dollars, we shall never be free from the influence of outside interests. To quote Willie Nelson, ``We came to play, not just for the ride.'' Let us stay and do the job to reform campaign finance and ban lobbyist gifts.”