Adam Smith: “I stand today against this rule because we are right at the same place we have been for many years. A couple of powerful…”

“I stand today against this rule because we are right at the same place we have been for many years. A couple of powerful people will decide what is going to be their partisan bill and bring them out to the floor and beat each other up with them. I do have to say there seems to be a little more openness on the Democrat side to try to come up with something than there was on the Republican side, but what we find here is a question of why do we need reform. Simple as this: The Republicans, who have the Contract With America, promised this. The gentleman from Texas, Dick Armey, said we are united in the belief the people's House must be wrested from the grip of special interests and handed back to the American people. It is as simple as this. We made our commitments. Promises made. Now it is time to keep those promises. Neither one of the bills included in this rule do anything but tighten the grip or give credibility to the grip. The American people need to understand that the Republican bill before us today tightens the grip. It gives credibility to the money-laundering soft money system. It solidifies it in law. If people do not think the tobacco industry has some kind of a toehold, at least a little grip on this place, hang around here for a year as I have. The Democrat bill still lets big groups give $8,000, one check at a time, night after night, at fund raisers here in Washington, DC. We all can do better than that.…”