Political Quotes

“I think the Senator is right. I agree with him. I think that one of the most encouraging things over the last 5 weeks has been Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray and their ability to work together. I mean, if you had told, I think, either of us that we were going to repeal and replace No Child Left Behind with 77 votes in the Senate, I would have said: I don't know. That seems like it is going to get into some pretty difficult, partisan, thorny territory. Yet what Lamar and Patty were able to do is to conduct hearings and bring us through a process by which we acted like a Senate, and we got all the votes. Now we are in that process when it comes to healthcare, and I think some people feel deeply uncomfortable with empowering the chair men and women of this body. They feel deeply uncomfortable. They talk about the regular order, but they really just want to get their way on the floor. I will just make one other point here. As people on the Republican side were justifying their ``yes'' votes in BCRA and whatever the other one was called before that, they were always talking about advancing the conversation and bringing us into a conference committee negotiation. Now, because September 30 is the deadline, there will be no negotiation. If Graham-Cassidy passes the Senate, it will pass the House, and it will be enacted into law.…”