Political Quotes

“Mr. President, again today, for the second day in a row, we have failed to break the Republican filibuster on the Wall Street reform bill. The votes are very clear. With one or two Democrats out-- one who is opposed to breaking the filibuster and the other absent-- there was not a single Republican vote in support of moving to the debate on the Wall Street reform bill. Tomorrow, there will be another opportunity, and it appears the other side, the Republican side, of the aisle is deciding they do not want to debate this issue. The Senate as an institution is designed to give people a chance to express themselves, both by votes and amendments they might offer. That is what we have offered. It is interesting to me, this bill which is before us, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act--I am just checking on how many pages it is; we count pages around here now--is 1,400 pages. OK. And I am not being critical of the size of this bill. It is a big challenge to make sure we pass the laws that are necessary to promote financial stability. But it was not but a few months ago that the Republicans were arguing that the health care reform bill was so big that we had to have it right out here in front of us and we should not be negotiating behind closed doors with secret negotiations on the bill; it ought to be right here on the Senate floor; let's have the amendments. Now comes this bill on Wall Street reform, and the Republican position is exactly the opposite.…”