Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to thank my colleagues here today who are joining in this colloquy. We have the junior Senators from Alaska and Montana, and we hoped to be joined by the junior Senator from North Carolina as well. As I stand here today, my brothers and sisters in arms are deployed overseas. Regardless of what the President tells us, our servicemembers are at war. They are in combat, and their combat boots are on the ground. I think our colleagues across the aisle have forgotten that as they continue to filibuster our Defense appropriations bill. We have men and women serving overseas. They are serving for us overseas. They also seem to have forgotten that all of those servicemembers are paying attention. I know because I was once one of those servicemembers deployed overseas, paying attention to the actions of the folks here in Washington. Right now our servicemembers are watching the minority leader, and our enemies are watching just as closely. This bill appropriates $515.9 billion for our national security, and $900 million of this funding is for the National Guard, a critical arm to the security of the United States, where I served for 23-plus years. My National Guard unit is in the Middle East right now. My Iowa Army National Guard unit, the unit that I commanded as a battalion commander, is serving in the Middle East right now. The minority leader doesn't care about their safety while they selflessly serve to ensure ours.…”