Political Quotes

“Senator, I have the utmost respect for you and the job you do here every day for all of us. I appreciate that. But we have a difference here. My difference is that I have to look at the people in West Virginia--fewer than 2 million people--who depend on the opportunity to make a living for themselves, and they have hard, strong feelings about what we have done over the years in trade agreements. They haven't seen an uptick in opportunity for themselves or their families. With that being said, what we have asked for here, the Senator from Massachusetts and I, is not something that has never been done before. I can't explain why President George W. Bush would have done this. Maybe it was on his own volition, saying: I am going to put out this agreement that has been scrubbed. Basically everything has been agreed on. We will let you see it and discuss it--the American people and the Senate and Congress that represents those people--to see if we have total buy-in and support. If not, we can make some adjustments and changes. He did that. That is really what we have asked for here. I respect your right to object, and I understand the process here. But the American people don't have input into this, and it has a 51-vote threshold from this day forward. So any of us who have any objections or maybe have something that would enhance this bill don't have that opportunity. That is the reason we have asked for this. I know the Senator was here and was very much involved in 2001.…”