Political Quotes

“while I share the concerns of the last speaker about terrorism, I am amazed by his comments defending Speaker Gingrich and his comments about Medicare and his challenge to my good friend, our colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Pallone. I wonder if the gentleman has ever listened to Speaker Gingrich's exact words, because they could not be clearer in what he said, nor in how he interpreted these words himself and his press secretary interpreted these words. Furthermore, the Speaker's determination to let Medicare wither on the vine is consistent with everything he and his Republican colleagues were doing throughout this period of time. Let me refer to his precise words. They were said on October 24, 1995. We have got a chart here with those words on it. He said, the key words, "But we believe it's going to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily going to leave it." So the big debate and the attempt at intimidation of people all over in this country who would have the audacity to hold the Speaker to these words is, well, it referred to some government bureaucracy. Well, he was not talking about downsizing a Federal agency. People were not going to leave a Federal agency. They were going to leave Medicare.…”