Political Quotes

“I rise tonight to talk about the government shutdown. I thank my colleague from Minnesota for her remarks. I remember the 2013 shutdown that she talked about. The reason I remember that is that while this place was shut down by the Senator from Texas, my State was under water from some of the worst floods we had ever seen, and there were people at every level of government--the local level, county government, the State level--coming together to work with FEMA, coming together to work with religious organizations, coming together to work with ordinary people to literally dig themselves out of the mud and the rocks that were the consequence of floods we had never seen before. I had to stand there almost like a fool explaining that the Federal Government was shut down for politics, and here we are again. For 10 years, I have come to this floor and said over and over that this place had become the land of flickering lights. The standard of success was only whether we kept the lights on for one more day or one more week. The standard of success had nothing to do with whether we invested in the next generation of Americans and had nothing to do with what America's place in the world was, and tonight, 18 days later, we are shut down. Just like in Minnesota and just like in New Hampshire, people in Colorado are suffering as a result of this.…”