Political Quotes

“Madam President, in reserving the right to object, it is remarkable that we see here a series of unanimous consent requests to pass legislation without debate and without the opportunity for amendment and improvement. It is just a few hours after a refusal to proceed to legislation by which we could have done just that-- legislation that had $500 billion of additional assistance going out to the American people. Legislation that did address these unemployment issues--and that has been discussed over the last 45 minutes on the floor--was objected to so that we couldn't even get on the bill. Following Nancy Pelosi's ``take it or leave it,'' ``my way or the highway'' approach, we are now here, seeing our colleagues on the other side pick up pieces of the legislation that Nancy Pelosi wants to pass without negotiating and without working through the legislative process to see if they can drive those through the Senate and object to not doing them in regular legislative order. We are ready to engage in major legislation. Yet a couple of hours after we tried for the second or third time to put it on the floor--and had that opportunity refused by my colleagues on the other side--we are accused of not working on these issues, and the ``take it or leave it'' proposals from the House-passed legislation are being thrown on the floor of the Senate. Let's talk about the current one--the proposal for rental assistance and eviction protection for those who need help in housing markets.…”