Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as you know, I was presiding this morning. I was not scheduled to speak, but this time I decided to inform my staff that I would be speaking so they would not be surprised. First, with all due respect to the Senator from Arizona, let's not cast shadows on either side. We are all in this together. You cannot blame one side or the other for delay. I could argue that the food safety bill took way too long because of three filibusters from the other side. But we are here. I am new to this whole process the last 2 years, and I have been patient about the issues we face and talk about. But this one is a fundamental issue. It is not a question of how long we extend these tax benefits for the middle class; it is who gets them--the middle class or the wealthy, the millionaires and billionaires. I heard my good friend, the Senator from South Dakota--we just sponsored a piece of legislation that passed--talk about the small businesspeople, that they will be affected. Well, let me give some data points because it is one thing to have opinions, it is another thing to have facts. Let's just focus on the facts. The bottom line is businesses in this country. I can speak as a small businessperson, I think the only one--if not broadly, pretty darn close--who has small businesses in this Chamber. My wife has four retail businesses. She started her businesses selling smoked salmon on a street corner on a vending cart.…”