Political Quotes

“first of all, I appreciate the Senator from Alabama yielding the floor. I came down first of all to express my gratitude to Senator Grassley for fighting for amendments, and I wish to comment on and really affirm what Senator Vitter was talking about--the Senator from Louisiana-- about how these amendments were chosen by the other side. I have not been an abuser of the amendment process in my time in the Senate. I try to pick the amendments and I try to write the amendments I think really have a positive impact on any piece of legislation. In this case, on the immigration bill, I want to solve the problem. I was looking for a reason to vote for the bill. What prevents me from voting for this bill is the huge cost we are having to pay for it. Listen, I don't want to divide families. I don't want to deport children's fathers. I don't want to deport husbands and wives. But I also agree with the American people that we cannot--we are already bankrupt in this country. We cannot provide benefits to those people coming here whom we want to welcome into our country, to contribute to our country, but we can't be paying benefits. So I offered two amendments--first of all, to not allow the Secretary to extend the registration period another 18 months, so we can get this behind us. My other amendment, which I think is more significant and would help me vote for the bill, would be to prevent immigrants from obtaining the earned-income tax credit.…”