Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am pleased to be here with my colleague from Alaska. I also was not planning to come to the floor to talk about this tonight because I thought the vote was going to pass. This is called a motion to proceed, and around here, I think that is Senate-speak for a motion to not get anything done. That is what happens when we do these motions. It is particularly aggravating because I was back in Colorado this weekend, as I am every weekend, traveling the State and had the chance to see the TV from time to time. You couldn't turn on a television station without seeing some politician from this town on TV talking about the importance of getting this work done, Democrats and Republicans, people taking the time out of their weekend to say to the American people: We are actually working hard to try to correct the problems that led us into the worst recession since the Great Depression. Then we all get back to town on Monday and we don't get anything done. We take a vote, not on the bill but a vote that would just allow us to debate the bill, to amend the bill, to get Republican amendments and Democrat amendments, to improve the legislation, and we are told we can't do that. We can have the debate on the airwaves, we can have the debate all weekend long on television in front of the American people, but when we come back here, in theory, to do the people's business, somehow we cannot debate it anymore.…”