Political Quotes

“Mr. President, first of all, it is a pleasure to work with Senator Shaheen on this bill. I am very happy to work together. We have the same goals in mind. For the cynical people outside of Washington, DC, that say there is never any Republican or Democratic cooperation, there is kind of a rule around here that Senator Shaheen and I are examples of, but it applies to all 100 Senators. If you really want to get something done, you have to seek bipartisanship in this body. I can quantify that in this way. There are 53 Republicans. There are 47 Democrats. But if there were 53 Democrats and 47 Republicans, the same rule would apply. About 99 percent of the legislation that gets done around here has to have 60 votes to stop debate before you can even vote on the bill. So obviously, even if all 53 Republicans were voting together--and that doesn't happen very often--you still wouldn't get the 60 votes to pass a piece of legislation. So that is why almost every major piece of legislation that gets through here--and this example of Shaheen- Grassley is just another example--it is because you seek bipartisanship, and it is just nice that it has to be that way. So addressing this issue, I can say I associate myself with the remarks of Senator Shaheen and sit down, but there is kind of a rule around the Senate. Everything that has been said on this bill has been said, but I haven't said it yet, and I am going to say it. I recently introduced S.…”