Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have served in this body for 19 years, and I will say I have never been more dismayed, more concerned, or more frustrated than I have been these past few days. Every day it gets a little bit worse because day by day our country grows closer to defaulting on our sovereign debt. That is something which has never, ever happened in the history of this country. The repercussions of this protracted and public debate on whether our government will honor its financial obligations are already evident. This is what we know for sure: The stock market has seen several days of decline as investors sell off securities. The United States is at high risk of a credit downgrade. Gold prices are climbing as people try to protect themselves from a rating downgrade and a drop in the value of the dollar. In short, default may well have catastrophic economic consequences domestically and internationally. What is the message we are communicating to the world? Secretary Clinton told me in an evening conversation I had with her--she had just returned from visiting five countries. She said everybody was asking her: What is wrong in your country? What are you going to do? This is now a worldwide crisis and one we must address. What we are seeing here is, in a sense, a broken government that can't take care of the affairs of its people in a prudent and practical way.…”