Political Quotes

“I am very proud to follow my colleague from New Hampshire and thank her for her leadership in offering the Military Retirement Restoration Act, which I am very pleased to support as an amendment to the unemployment insurance extension bill. For all the reasons I have stated, and others have expressed even more powerfully than I, this bill makes sense. We must extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless. The merits of this bill are absolutely indisputable and undeniable. This bill offers a critically important opportunity, and we ought to seize it to correct and fix a defect in the budget agreement that was reached by the very excellent work of our colleague Senator Murray and Congressman Ryan, and that was passed overwhelmingly by a bipartisan majority in this body. It was an agreement that advanced and enhanced economic certainty. It had many advantages, but it also was far from perfect. Its flaws included a cut in military retiree benefits. These benefits were cut by provisions to that agreement that was approved by this body, with many reservations and regrets, and now we ought to seize this opportunity to correct that defect as this measure offers us through an amendment. We can pay for it. It can be budget neutral, if we simply close a certain egregious corporate tax loophole as Senator Shaheen has suggested. I want to emphasize again what Senator Shaheen said so well.…”