Political Quotes

“as an author of the underlying bill, before we had done such valuable work in the Senate to amend it, I would have to say, with the greatest respect to my colleague, while philosophically I align myself with his view of giving the States and the people of those States the greatest say over their tax dollars and the wisdom of having those dollars at their discretion--and if several States do go through the legislative process, putting a replacement tax on the books, there is a question and doubt about that, I am sure the Senator will agree with me--but with due respect, this amendment, were it to be adopted by the Senate, would be literally destructive of this bill and the work that the committee, under the leadership of the distinguished chairman and ranking member and myself, have provided these many, many months to get where we are. I think we have at long last, Mr. President, reconciled many, many differences to try and bring back a feeling of credibility in the principle of equity of distribution among the several States. The needs for the highway system are clearly in the minds of all Senators, as well as, I am sure, the Senator from Florida. There is no dispute there. So we are down here in the final hours of this bill now faced with an amendment which would, in my judgment, simply be destructive and would result in the unraveling of the bill as it presently is before the Senate.”