Political Quotes

“strangely, this piece of legislation rejects the notion that I have heard so often voiced from this microphone about the concept of personal responsibility. It is OK to demand personal responsibility of the most disadvantaged, of the poorest people, of the most vulnerable people in our society. But, for some reason, it is the position of those who support this conference report that it is inappropriate to demand full personal responsibility of those who kill and maim and destroy the lives of their neighbors. In many cases, the cases that generate the largest verdicts, that get talked about the most, result from those who place profits over safety, time and time again, when they had one report after another coming in from across America that people were being damaged, that they were being hurt, being killed by their products, and those reports were ignored and the lives of other Americans were endangered as a result. But that concept of personal responsibility is totally and completely disregarded by those who support this bill. The second concept that has been talked about so much, as if it were a new invention, is that of States rights. What is wrong with the jurisdiction and the legislatures of these 50 United States addressing this issue? Why is it that from this microphone there is only support for State wrongs, but never support for States rights? I say that the States ought to be able to address these issues themselves.”