Political Quotes

“I have a simple request for my Republican colleagues, and that is this: Open the government. Open the government. There have been too many people suffering for too long for this to go on any further. One of those people is named Scott Pekalib. He lives in Hilo, HI, and works for the U.S. Geological Survey. He has had a rough few months. In October, his husband Jay went into the hospital for a routine surgery that went horribly wrong. He went into cardiac arrest and was in an induced coma for several days. He had to be flown to another island to receive the care that was necessary. Scott and Jay spent all of their savings to get through this ordeal. After paying for medicine, hotels, and airfare, they were living paycheck to paycheck. Now, because of this government shutdown, Scott's paycheck reads zero. He doesn't know how he is going to buy gas to take his husband to the doctor or how they are going to pay the bills that are due. Scott is making impossible choices between buying the prescription drugs he needs and the ones that his husband needs. All of this pain and suffering is because the Senate will not vote to reopen the government. So I ask my Republican friends to call for a vote, and if the President vetoes the bill, let's act like a separate, coequal branch of government and override that veto. That is our prerogative in the United States, and that is our obligation in the U.S.…”