Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today, again, to discuss S. 1 and to urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this. We had a vote just the other day on this, and it has been reconsidered. All Republicans voted for it. Four of our friends on the other side of the aisle also voted with us on this, and I would urge a few more to do so. If that happens, we will actually pass this package of bills, which is so important. These have been kicked around for some time. The substance of these bills have near--although not complete--unanimous approval of this body. Indeed, Members of this body have voted for these, both in committee and on the floor, individually in the past, but they have not gotten across the finish line because we ran out of time in the last Congress. Essentially, it is a package of three bills that support our friends. One, of course, supports Israel. One supports Jordan, one of our best friends in the Middle East. And, lastly, one of the bills refreshes and strengthens the sanctions against Bashar al-Assad and his government in Syria. These should pass. You might ask yourself: Well, what is going on here? Why are we having these party-line votes on this? Well, my friends on the other side of the aisle have said: We are not going to vote on anything while the government is shut down, and we should be focused on this. I would remind my friends that there are a lot of us around here who are veterans of the 2013 Obama-Harry Reid shutdown. During that shutdown, the U.S.…”