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Debate Quotes
"I take the debate on the method of promoting democracy seriously."
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"We should not use special budget procedures to jam through legislation to drill in the Arctic Refuge. This topic is too important to the public to address it in such a back-door manner. We should be having a full, open discussion of the issue during an energy debate."
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"The most important event I covered was the Panama Canal debate, which dragged on for months."
"There is an ongoing debate about the reform of the U.N. system."
"The dinner table is a lively debate, and everybody weighs in in a different way. I like that, though."
"To be sure, debates will linger about whether Medicare is too large or too small. Debates remain about the allocation of Medicare dollars. But December 8, 2003, demonstrated that there is no debate about this most fundamental fact: Medicare must survive."
"I heard Dennis Kucinich say in a debate, 'When I'm president... and I just wanted to stop him and say, 'Dude.'"
"Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate."
"Another example of the educational inequality is the current debate over publicly financed school vouchers which will provide educational opportunities to a privileged handful, but deprive public schools of desperately needed resources."
"I don't really feel like I have to have a debate with my husband over issues."
"When I am in the Scottish Parliament chamber, I often feel the need to sit for the entire debate. It's only courteous to listen to what everyone has to say, although I often find myself desperate to say something but too scared to stand up in case I regret it."
"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it."
"I can assure you we are all strong-willed, forceful personalities and the president encourages vigorous debate."
"Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled."
"The job of the press is to encourage debate, not to supply the public with information."
"Open debate and full discourse on the topic of torture is a double-edged sword."
"There is zero debate about whether the world is getting warmer. That is a fact, a measured fact. There is some debate, although not much anymore, about what's causing the world to get warmer. And the consensus, by far is that it's us."
"Let's leave behind the predictable and stale debate between liberals and conservatives. Let's take the resources that we have, and prioritize, and manage, and focus our energy on just doing things that count - on real results."
"No matter how you cut it, this real debate on personal accounts is about the legitimacy of Social Security; it's not about the solvency of Social Security."
"When every one of your arguments is characterized an attempt to bring back slavery or resegregate lunch counters, it's a little hard to have any sort of productive debate."
"What passes for real debate in Washington often seems more like an echo chamber, with politicians talking at politicians."
"Defining the terms of the debate generally dictates who's gonna' win it."
"Every candidate goes into every debate hoping that they can own a particular moment."
"One can always debate questions back and forth."
"But, also, before I even go on the Medicare prescription drug debate, I always tell the folks in rural Illinois, and I represent 30 counties south of Springfield down to Indiana and Kentucky, that in this bill is the best rural package for hospitals ever passed."
"The national debate on Social Security has been cheapened by demagoguery on all sides."
"Information, usually seen as the precondition of debate, is better understood as its by-product."
"There's a bit of debate about that; some say it was really Matthew, but the popular consensus is that Mark was the first one, so that's why I did that one first. And I was planning on doing all four."
"We've become more tolerant because we're tired of the debate."
"But the reporter has the responsibility to determine, number one, whether that is true, and number two, to make a judgment as to whether it's in the public interest and whether or not it should be part of the debate."
"Political debate with liberals is basically impossible in America today because liberals are calling names while conservatives are trying to make arguments."
"After Nashville sushi and a long debate on Bob Dylan, we went into Woodland Studios at 10 pm that night for a look around, and jammed for 5 hours solid."
"If we don't believe in moral absolutes and then we get into a cultural-political debate, how are we going to win?"
"What we have to do... is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities."
"I enjoyed debate on the floor but it's not really debate in the same way."
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