Political Quotes

“I thank the ranking member, Mr. Chairman, for yielding. Mr. Chairman, this bill targets the leadership of Iran, and, frankly, that is probably a worthy goal in some regards. I think it eventually envisions publicizing negative information about them, and that might be an effective tool as well. We all know that. We have been through campaigns. We know negative advertising works. That said, I oppose this legislation, and I do so for two reasons. The first is resources are finite. They are not unlimited; they are finite. Tracking down all the assets of these named Iranian leaders takes significant time, effort, and personnel. Where are those resources supposed to come from? All around this city, everybody is agitating for deeper cuts to nondefense discretionary accounts. If we are going to make cuts, we are going to have to make some tough choices. The personnel responsible for implementing this bill would be diverted from terrorist financing and money laundering. Let me say that again. The people, the personnel responsible for implementing this bill would be diverted from terrorist financing and money laundering. Propaganda about corruption of Iranian leadership--which I stipulate to here up front--could be valuable, but it can't be more valuable than stopping actual terrorist financing. Terrorist financing should be our target. Money laundering should be our target, not garden-variety corruption.…”