Political Quotes

“a few months ago, one really could not turn on the television at night or open a newspaper without hearing about the plight of those who suffered in the Enron-Andersen debacle-- people whose tomorrow was stolen, many of them innocent, hard-working employees for the very companies that were engaged in these questionable deals. Even expert investors, including those at a public state retirement system in Austin, Texas, lost millions of dollars in Enron investments. Many people who were working to prepare their own tax returns saw that Enron was not paying much in the way of taxes; in fact, it apparently was not paying any taxes at all. There were two reactions to this debacle. There were some people, like the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce) who said, how can we prevent something like this from happening again? What can we do? What is the best way? Certainly, it is challenging and complex, but what is the best way to be sure that more people do not suffer like this in the future? And then there was a second response, the response we normally hear in Washington from those special interest lobbyists: how can we keep the loopholes, the back doors, the exceptions, the special preferences and exemptions that we worked so diligently over the years to be sure that Congress gave us, how can we be sure we keep them in the future?”