Political Quotes

“Thank you very much, Madam President. I am not part of this group of 14, I believe it is, but I wish to thank them. I know a little bit about how hard it is to try to pull something together in an emerging situation, and they have done it. I see Susan and Amy and Lisa here on the floor, three Senators who played a major role in this effort. I wish to thank them for taking the time, having the courage, and putting forward the ideas they did. I also wish to thank the leaders, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, because I think their coming together essentially averted what I saw as a potential catastrophe. Although there is many a slip between the cup and the lip, I think we are in the home stretch. I think what we see is both a continuing resolution and the debt limit being extended, albeit not for long. Coming over here somebody stopped me and said: Well, we will be right back here in 3 or 4 months. Our challenge is to make that not so. I also wish to thank Senator Cruz, with whom I have had occasions to tangle, but he has said that he will not stand in the way of the vote. To me that is very important, because nobody knows what really will happen if we do not pass the debt ceiling in a timely way. In a way it is a big lesson in itself: Let us not go there again, and let us use this 3- to 4-month period in a wise and willing way to sit down, as the group of 14 did, and work out issues before we are right back from where we came.…”