Political Quotes

“there is no small amount of irony that the bill in question before the committee today was H.R. 1776. The democracy that our forebears brought to being in this land requires our continual vigilance. We are reminded of the words of James Madison that there are more instances of abridgement by gradual encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation. Mr. Speaker, a committee chairman today ordered the police to evict Members of this Congress from a committee room on the edge of the markup. When Officer Spriggs arrived in that room, the committee library, he was not looking for the gentleman from California (Mr. Stark). He was there, as he said, to clear the room on the instructions of the chief of staff of the committee chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. My friends, this is how tyranny begins. It is our responsibility to stand against a police state, to stand in favor of open dialogue rather than to permit a bill to pass with only the votes of one party and move toward a one-party state.”