Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it has been almost 800 days since the Senate Democratic majority produced a budget. I do not expect one to appear from the majority today, but at least the Democratic majority canceled the Fourth of July recess to work toward an agreement to deal with our budgetary crisis. With the possibility of default looming, our caucus, led by Senator Sessions, has been pushing the Democratic majority to keep the Chamber working over the recent recesses. After refusing past calls to remain in session, the Democratic majority finally recognized that we cannot sort this out if we are not here to focus on it. I, for one, am glad the Democratic majority listened. The American people deserve an honest and open conversation about the very difficult situation we are in. More importantly, they deserve a commitment that we will work in good faith to end this impasse. Unfortunately, I am not sure we will get that from the Democratic majority or the President. We are in session this week specifically to deal with the budget ceiling crisis, and the only vote the majority leader had scheduled from the outset was a resolution on the Libya conflict. I say ``had'' because the Democratic majority rightly canceled that vote after intense pressure from our side to keep the Senate focused on the debt ceiling issue. President Obama has been absent from this debate for months.…”