Political Quotes

“the time has come to pay the piper, and we don't much like the price. For years we have been able to sing the siren song of sanctions on the cheap. Whenever we are concerned about human rights--sanctions. If we are concerned about nuclear proliferation--sanctions. But I think almost always the magic of those sanctions has been that they don't go into effect when we make the speeches on that subject on the floor; they may happen sometime later. And now they have happened. All of us in this body and our predecessors are guilty of this song. But now we learn what it really does. At a time in which farm prices, especially in our wheat country and the Pacific Northwest, are already declining precipitously because of the financial crisis in east Asia, we add to our own pain by creating a situation that will almost certainly cause us to lose hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of sales in Pakistan to other countries that don't share our enthusiasm for sanctions, unless we act in a period of time of less than 1 week. Yes, this is an urgently needed bill, urgently needed for the farm sector of our community, urgently needed for our own ability to operate in a highly competitive world of agriculture. For that purpose, the work of the Senator from Kentucky and the Senator from Delaware and everyone else who has been a part of this is vitally important.”