Political Quotes

“Thank you. This kind of reminds me of the story of the rogue cowboy. When you think of the rogue cowboy, you think of somebody, you know, sitting under the sun just taking it all in, doesn't really want to work with anybody. That reminds me of the Senate, taking it easy. They haven't taken a lot of votes this year; more interested in, I guess, getting paid and letting the bills stack up, and they don't need to work with anybody. But you know what we can do in that process? Let's blame one small lever of government. Let's blame the House Republicans. Let's blame them for the 9.1 percent unemployment. Let's do that. You know, that's what we can do. We don't actually have to govern. I mean, when you look at it, they've had control of the House of Representatives and the Senate since 2006 and the Presidency since 2008, with the exception of a very brief period of time over the last year where Republicans have been blessed and fortunate enough to be in the majority in the House of Representatives. But yet this unemployment, according to them, is our fault. We need jobs in this country. In my district, the 11th Congressional District in Illinois, you have cities like Joliet, like Ottawa, like Bloomington. A lot of places have seen their manufacturing base disappear. They've seen it over the last 20 or 30 years. And what's been our reaction? Well, typically the knee-jerk reaction in Washington, DC, is that we have to have some kind of a program. We have to pass more spending.…”