Political Quotes

“It says this on the front page: ``With shutdown looming, GOP freshmen are wild cards.'' When you ask the Republican Members of the House where this is going, they say they don't know. The government could shut down; we don't know. Later, I will go into what happened the last time the government shut down. I will not do that at this moment. I talked to Senator Casey, my good colleague and a great leader in the Senate, about an anomaly in the law that protects Members of Congress from getting their pay shut down in the case of a government shutdown, when the vast majority of Federal workers will not get paid. He and I agree there is something wrong with this system. It is not fair. If we fail to keep this government operating, which is our basic responsibility, to keep the checks flowing to Social Security recipients, to veterans with disabilities, to make sure we don't harm the private sector contractors and workers--if we don't do that, we don't deserve to get our pay. We put together a bill that says, in the case of a government shutdown, Members of Congress and the President must be treated the same way as other Federal employees--and, by the way, not get back our pay retroactively. It touched a chord with several colleagues. We have the bill written, and we have sent it to the Republican side and the Democratic side. My understanding is, it has passed the Democratic side via hotline, and the Republicans are looking at it now.…”