Tom Daschle Bill Quotations

We're not going to give. We fought very hard to get to this point, ... A meaningful patients' bill of rights is one of the most important things the American people want us to do.

That is probably the key factor in support of any tax measure, whether we have that $35 billion locked in or not,

Our bill is a real plan, theirs is a placebo,

I think that it's so critical when you make a request to the Congress to authorize and appropriate $38 billion for homeland security, somebody ought to come up and explain just how you're going to spend it, ... Those issues are going unanswered in large measure because Mr. Ridge refuses to testify. We just have to find a way hopefully without the use of coercion to have those questions answered for the record.

But now a memo forecasts administration plans for billions of dollars of cuts to America's veterans, schools, health care, homeland defense, worker-training programs and medical research,

They want to pull the bill in a clandestine way. They want to be able to pull the bill with our fingerprints on it. And we're not going to give them that opportunity.

We have come up with a delicate, but yes, successful compromise. There is no question all 100 of us could go through this bill with a fine-tooth comb and cherry pick and find improvements... we've got a job to do, the clock is ticking and the work needs to get done.

We will not allow this bill to be ... sneaked through a back door when no one is looking, ... This is a Frankenstein monster of a bill. It's time to take it back to the laboratory.

I can't imagine that we would pass any bill that would tolerate slipping back into a level of intolerance that would be acceptable in today's society,

The gimmickry in this bill is enough to make an Enron executive blush.

We have an anticipated debt of $400 billion this year, and that's before the first dollar in whatever military action may be required will be expended, ... Without a question, this will exacerbate the debt and complicate our fiscal circumstances beyond anything, I would say, in history.

We know that there are still some in the Senate who think that they may have a chance to keep this bill from becoming law, ... We say to them, 'Look what happened in the House. Opponents in the House used every conceivable argument and excuse, every imaginable ploy. They failed and so will you.'

We therefore expect more say on how the Senate is run, and that includes everything from deciding what bills are debated on the floor, what goes into conference reports, to deciding committee chairs and ratios, and assigning committee staff and office space,

Instead of finding a real solution to the growing unemployment crisis, this bill will give millions to those who don't need it and very little to those who do, ... It will add a trillion dollars to our national debt; spend the Social Security trust fund and ultimately lose more jobs.

(They are going to) send another stimulus bill over here and jam us? ... Well, that isn't going to work. You need 60 votes to get something done here. The only way we are going to get something done, to ensure success in the next 72 hours, is to help ... laid-off workers.

I think the bill would be hard to oppose.

And yet he is now asking for health care for the Iraqi people. He's asking for education for the Iraqi children. He's asking for money for an Iraqi highway bill -- highway construction.

I am pleased that Secretary Thompson has acknowledged the growing scandal over the Medicare drug bill and has pledged an independent inquiry into the misconduct,

I hope he's not going to suggest that we finish this bill over two travel days and a weekend, ... showcasing and posturing.