Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, in 1 week, on June 1, the country and the world is going to witness something that we have never seen before. There will be an office in the United States Treasury, less than a mile from here, in which a group of people will decide: Are we going to pay the soldier deployed in Syria to combat ISIS, or are we going to send out Social Security checks? Are we going to pay air traffic controllers, or are we going to support the Medicare program that provides healthcare for retirees? That is tragedy in and of itself, but the world is going to see something it has never seen before. It is going to see that the United States is no longer trustworthy; that we don't pay our bills; that we don't abide by the obligations that we freely took in this Chamber. Even worse, Putin and Xi and the leadership of North Korea and Iran are going to say, look, democracy does not work. The supposedly greatest country in the world won't pay its bills. Now, are we in this place because we don't have the money? Of course we are not. We have the money. We are the richest, most powerful country in the world. We are in this place because my Republican colleagues have figured out that they have a perfect hostage situation; that if this Congress-- and make no mistake--it is the Congress' obligation to raise the debt ceiling. It is not the President's obligation under the law. It is the Congress' obligation to raise the debt ceiling.…”