Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleague for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I rise today in opposition to the rule and the bill. Mr. Speaker, what exactly are we doing here? We could be talking about creating jobs for the middle class. We could be talking about a payroll tax cut extension. We could be talking about corporate tax reform, individual tax reform, and most importantly, we could be talking about solving the national deficit, about reducing government spending, about solving the deficit issue. But, instead, we're here playing this game of Kabuki theater. Rather than pursuing an agenda that isn't a Democratic or Republican agenda, but an American agenda that both sides all can agree on, we're here playing a counterproductive and absurd game. In fact, not only playing a game, we're replaying a game. We all remember the debt debacle last August that almost shut down Federal Government and led to a downgrade, potentially increasing interest rates and costing the government billions or hundreds of billions of dollars more in interest payments. For the first time in history, Standard & Poor's downgraded our country's credit rating, citing brinksmanship and political gridlock as motivating factors for their decision. Look, this is all Monday night quarterbacking. It's after the fact. The money has been spent.…”