Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise tonight to express my concern with how Congress continues to address this package of so-called extenders. This is a debate we have had on multiple occasions this year, and once again we find ourselves discussing how to enact a short- term extension of items such as emergency unemployment benefits, reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program, the Federal Medicaid matching rate, FMAP, and the Medicare doc fix. This is a difficult debate for many of us. Times are tough across the country, as well as in my home State of Georgia where the unemployment rate is 10.4 percent. During a time of economic hardship, I do not believe we should allow provisions, such as the extension of emergency unemployment benefits, to expire. But I do believe that when we extend these programs, we should do so in a responsible fashion. Congress should find a way to pay for those extensions. That is where there is disagreement on this issue--not whether Congress should pass an extenders package but whether it should be paid for. Even though the need for these extensions comes as no surprise, we again find ourselves in a position where the majority has proposed extending these programs without finding the money to fund them.…”