Richard K. Armey: “Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker from the Democrat side of the aisle was most unsettling. The rules of discourse that…”

“Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker from the Democrat side of the aisle was most unsettling. The rules of discourse that we follow in this House, the protocols that we try to honor for one another in this House, are commonly understood that we do not assail one another's motives. I have just listened to what is as malicious a diatribe regarding the motives of the majority in this matter as I have ever heard on the floor of this House, and it is not necessary. Should I try to refute point by point the allegations about our motives, political motives? No, of course not. Let me say, Mr. Speaker, suffice it to say that it is commonplace among the Democrats for them to accuse us of what they themselves are doing. What we are asking is not to repeat the census of 1990. What we are asking is for Congress to listen to the Constitution and to the chief institutional defense of the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and count the American people, enumerate. The Constitution says and the Supreme Court says, count. Every American deserves to be counted. We are prepared to make whatever obligation of funds and efforts is necessary to count every person. I deserve to be counted. My son and daughter deserve to be counted. If you live in Bemidji, Minnesota, you deserve to be counted, not estimated, not guessed at and not eliminated because you did not fit in somebody's statistical model.”