Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I was going to give some prepared remarks, but I want to be a little quicker because I see the Senator from Virginia here, and I know how devastating a government shutdown is for the State of Virginia. It is terrible for Hawaii--for our shipyards and our Federal workers. I do want to respond to my friend from Alaska. He is my friend. We overuse that word in the U.S. Senate; that is true. Dan Sullivan is my friend, but he is wrong on this. First of all, a small point: The NFL Network is back up and running on the Armed Forces Network. That was fixed on Saturday. Second of all, there were unanimous consent requests on Friday night to make sure that we pay the military. On Friday night, a unanimous consent request was made to pay the military. It was objected to by the majority leader. And then we tried again yesterday, and it was objected to by the majority leader. So when the junior Senator from Alaska alleges that we are emerging with slick talking points about the need to support our military servicemembers and civilian DOD employees, I take personal offense. I agree, it should not be slick talking points. This should not be a bludgeon that one party or one Member of one party uses against the other party. But let's just get our facts straight about what happened.…”