Jay Rockefeller: “conduct in Washington over the past few days reminds me of a biblical warning about straining out a gnat while…”

“conduct in Washington over the past few days reminds me of a biblical warning about straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel. This week we have heard a grinding tirade about a 16-year-old real estate transaction and precious few sentences about the perilous future of health care for millions of Americans. For too many years, Americans have flipped to C-SPAN and come face to face with congressional sniping but few solutions for the real life problems of real Americans. Debate has seemed more like political ping-pong than serious discussions of issues with real and lasting impact on our people and on our Nation. It is not surprising that the people of America tune us out. For more than a decade we have seen campaigns waged with tactics of division and fear. Work in this Congress was subverted by debates about budget gimmicks and flag burning, all of this while family income stagnated, while millions lost health coverage, and more were shunted into HMO's while industry's competitive edge was worn away and our foreign competitors ate our economic lunch while a quarter of our children slipped into poverty and a quarter of the homeless each night are our children. Mr. President, in just 12 months President Clinton has started to turn around 12 years of inaction and neglect.”