Political Quotes

“Either this is April Fool's Day or the Republicans are trying to fool the House of Representatives and the country by attempting to pass this legislation. There is no truth in labeling whatsoever in H.R. 1255, the ``Government Shutdown Prevention Act of 2011.'' It will prevent no such thing. It will accomplish no such thing. Section 2 of the bill says that if the House has not received a message from the Senate stating, by next Wednesday, April 6, that the Senate has passed a spending bill for the balance of this fiscal year, then ``the provisions of H.R. 1, as passed by the House on February 19, 2011, are hereby enacted into law.'' Who are the authors of this bill kidding? The House passed H.R. 1. It lies defeated on the Senate floor, unloved and unwanted. The Senate voted against H.R. 1, 44-56. It did not even get 50 votes, much less 60. So what, exactly, is the point of this exercise today? It is obviously not to enact H.R. 1, because that is futile. With the vote on this bill today, we will in effect be passing H.R. 1 a second time. This is getting to be a pattern. Instead of finding bipartisan solutions to our pressing national problems, this Republican House seems stuck on a pointless partisan treadmill. H.R. 1 contained five amendments to defund the Affordable Care Act. Yesterday, the Energy and Commerce Committee passed five bills to remove funding for public health and doctor training programs under the Affordable Care Act.…”