Heidi Alexander: “I thought the Senator from Arizona made a very commonsense proposal. We are in a position here in the Congress that we…”

“I thought the Senator from Arizona made a very commonsense proposal. We are in a position here in the Congress that we often find ourselves in: We have different opinions-- dramatically different opinions in some cases. What she said was, while we are working those things out, let's extend the $600 unemployment benefit for 7 days so people aren't hurt. That is a commonsense proposal. I regret that wasn't adopted. I like what the Senator from Ohio said. Instead of starting--when you have a disagreement over several items, my experience is that you don't start with the things that you disagree on the most; you start with the things you agree on the most. There are a number of things in the House-passed bill and in the Senate Republican bill that was introduced on Monday, which the President supports--let me repeat that. The House of Representatives passed a bill. They have a Democratic majority. The Senate has a Republican majority, and we have a Republican President. We have a Republican President and a Republican bill, and we have a House-passed bill, and it is time to see if we can put the two together. That is why we have two bodies. But that requires Senators and Members of the House who are willing to sit down and come to some compromise or some resolution of the issues. There are some things about which we have big differences. One is the dollar figure. As the Senator from Ohio said, we have already spent $3.5 trillion.…”