Political Quotes

“Madam President, there have been some days recently when I kind of wonder why we even show up to the Senate any longer. This job is not what it used to be. When I get the chance to read about the history of the Senate, I read about these things called debates that we used to have on the floor of the Senate. I read about something called an amendment, which apparently is a way that an individual Senator calls up a proposal or an initiative and puts it on the floor for an up-or-down vote. Those things don't really happen anymore in the U.S. Senate. We don't have open-ended debates on the big policies of the day. I get it. When Republicans control the Senate, they control the agenda. When Democrats control the Senate, they control the agenda. At the very least, I would have hoped that the Senate majority, now in Republican hands, would put their policy initiatives before the Senate so we could have an open debate. That doesn't happen any longer. All we seem to be doing these days is voting on judges. Now, that is a really important function of the U.S. Senate, and I am glad we are doing it, but today we are going to do something truly exceptional, which causes me, once again, to wonder what my job here is and to feel a little bit of sadness as to how it has changed and how much less substantive the input of each individual Senator is in the direction of this country.…”