Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Presiding Officer, my colleague from Delaware, has heard me say more than a few times that when I meet people who have been married a long time, I like to ask them: What is the secret to being married 50 or 60 or 70 years or more? I get some funny answers. I also get some very poignant answers. Sometimes I get very instructive answers. One of the best answers I have ever heard--in fact, I have heard it more than a few times over the years--is the key to a long marriage, a successful marriage is the two Cs--not Coons and Carper, not Coons and Carney, not Coons and Castle but communicate and compromise. The folks from Delaware who elect us--and people from the other 49 States--are wondering: why don't we do the two Cs more here? Because those two qualities--communicating and compromising--are actually not only needed for a successful marriage but also for democracy to succeed. Today, as we prepare to vote on the conference report--a compromise-- it is a product of a whole lot of communication from people all over the country: from businesses, from air traffic controllers, from labor unions, from people who use airlines, to folks who are involved in sometimes direct or indirect ways with this legislation, but they have been communicating with us what they think we should do. As we work to bring our air traffic control system into the 21st century and as we seek to fund the modernization of our airports and our airways, we have had to raise some money.…”