Political Quotes

“Madam President, since I raised the objection today, I wanted to close my comments by accurately describing to the people at home or in the gallery or elsewhere what is happening here. Maybe some folks are wondering what this is all about. It is pretty straightforward. In fact, for over 1,000 days the Senate did not pass a budget under the leadership of the current majority, and we did complain about that because that was problematic. Ultimately, this year, they finally passed a budget--one which, quite frankly, doesn't deal with our debt and doesn't help grow our economy, but they passed a budget. The House has passed its budget. The Senate has passed a budget. The way it works is that now both sides are supposed to sit down and negotiate. What is happening is that a motion is being made to start these negotiations. Nobody here is objecting to these negotiations. That can begin today. This process they want can happen right this very moment. The only thing we are asking is that it be clear that as part of that negotiation--an increase in the debt limit not be part of it. Here is why it is so important that it not be part of it: because we have not discussed it. As the Senator from Texas pointed out, when we debated the budget we did not debate the debt limit. Let me tell you what the debt limit is. It is the credit line of the United States. It is how much money the government is allowed to borrow. This is not a trivial matter.…”