Political Quotes

“Madam President, I plan to speak for about an hour for the benefit of scheduling, although I will only scratch the surface of what I will have to say about this treaty. Let me begin by talking about 14 or 15 specific things I intend to cover at some point when we have time during this debate and note that there will be amendments proposed that deal with many of the items I am going to be mentioning. First, I think it is important for us to lay out what some of the concerns are. This morning when I talked about the fact that the Senate is going to have to deal with the funding of the U.S. Government which expires on midnight on Saturday, I noted the fact that the process the majority leader has invoked, to dual-track or consider the START treaty along with the Omnibus appropriations bill, is not a process that allows adequate consideration of either, and the American people sent a signal in the last election that they didn't want us to continue this wasteful Washington spending spree we have been on. Yet the Omnibus appropriations bill, which I am not sure I could lift, will do exactly that. We ought to be focused on a process by which that can actually be considered with amendments. Under the way the majority leader has outlined our schedule, that does not appear to be possible. The first concern I have with respect to going to the START treaty at this time is that we are putting the cart before the horse.…”