Political Quotes

“Mr. President, there are a lot of Americans who don't understand what is happening right now. Republicans asked for control of the U.S. Senate, they asked for control of the House of Representatives, and they asked for control of the White House. They got all three. They promised that by doing so, they would be able to more effectively manage the affairs of state, and that is clearly not happening right now. There is a fundamental inability to govern, as we are now shut down for the second day. Tomorrow is an important day because many of the functions that the people expect from the Federal Government will not be there on Monday morning, despite the fact that we have made some progress--first, on Friday night on this floor, and subsequent to that, in private discussions today--in order to reach an agreement that Republicans and Democrats can support. So I am here with several of my colleagues to make some fairly simple requests of the U.S. Senate. It seems that if we were really adults, if we were really going to operate like grownups and we were going to be truly responsible stewards of the Federal Government, then we should be able to keep the government open for a very short period of time while we negotiate a way out of this. As many folks know, we on the Democratic side, as well as some of our Republican colleagues, don't think it is wise to do another month-long continuing resolution, but why don't we just agree to keep the government open tomorrow?…”