Political Quotes

“OK. The reason I wanted to put this in the record in a simple way is because sometimes when we have the back-and-forth and the ``I object'' and ``reserving the right to object,'' people lose track of exactly what happened. We offered the Republicans everything they said they wanted. They wanted amendments. They were offered amendments of their own choosing. Up to 20 amendments could have been voted on under the agreement. They said they wanted pay-fors. We gave them a pay-for that actually came out of Paul Ryan's budget, a structural change that would have paid for 10\1/2\ months of unemployment benefits. The Republicans just can't say yes. They demanded amendments. We gave them amendments. They demanded pay-fors. We gave them pay-fors. I believe something else is going on, and I have to say what I think is going on. They do not want to extend unemployment compensation to the long-term unemployed. That is a dramatic change that is occurring in the culture of this country, in the compassion of this country, in the consensus in this country, in the values of this country. We are talking about 1.5 million Americans--250,000 Californians. I am frankly stunned. I know Senator Mikulski is here, and I so much want to hear from her, so I will skip some of the other history about how it has been over the years and how we have done this where we have come together, Republicans and Democrats.…”