Wowee! I love video because it captures history and there is NO WAY it can be denied. Listen up AMERICA! He's speaking TRUTH! Byrd has been a Senator since January 3, 1959, and is the longest-serving Senator as well as the longest-serving member in congressional history. I have typed a transcript of what Senator Byrd (D-WV) is adamantly declaring about the use of reconciliation on 04/05/01.
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The Democratic leadership pleaded with me at length to agree to support the idea that the Clinton Health Care bill should be included in that year's reconciliation package. They came to my office on the floor below. President Clinton got on the phone and called me also and pressed me to allow his MASSIVE HEALTH CARE BILL to be insulted by reconciliation's protection. He called me on the telephone.
I felt that changes as dramatic as the Clinton Health Care package, which would AFFECT EVERY MAN, WOMAN and CHILD in the United States SHOULD BE SUBJECT TO SCRUTINY!
I said Mr. President, I cannot in GOOD CONSCIENCE turn my face the other way. That's why we have a Senate to amend and to debate freely. And that health bill as important as it is, is SO COMPLEX, SO FAR REACHING that the people of this country NEED TO KNOW WHAT'S IN IT and moreover Mr. President, we Senator's NEED TO KNOW WHAT'S IN IT before WE VOTE!
And he accepted that. He accepted that and thanked me and we said good-bye.
I COULD NOT, I WOULD NOT, AND I DID NOT ALLOW THAT PACKAGE TO BE HANDLED IN SUCH A CAVALIER MANNER! It was the threat of the use of the Byrd rule. Reconciliation was NEVER, NEVER, NEVER intended to be used as a SHIELD for CONTROVERSIAL LEGISLATION!
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