Political Quotes

“I wish to thank the majority leader for his statement. We are hoping there will be positive developments today, and very quickly, relative to the impasse which we have reached. It is time to reopen this government, it is time to make certain we pay our bills, and then let us engage in honest debate on the issues that are before us, and there are many. The forum for that debate is very obvious: It is the budget conference, the conference between the two budget committees. The Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Senator Patty Murray of Washington, passed the floor of the Senate 6 months ago. Senator Murray and others on our side have tried on 21 separate occasions to ask for unanimous consent to go to this budget conference committee to start debating the issues which we now see in the press every day. Twenty-one separate times the Republicans have objected to even meeting. This is unfortunate and it is one of the reasons we are here today. It is hard to believe, if one is in the midst of this maelstrom, that not even 2 weeks have passed since we started this debate on the floor of the Senate, which has led to this terrible situation. Two weeks ago our government was open. There was good thinking--or at least a good hope--that we were going to extend the debt ceiling of the United States. Now we are in a much different place. We are only 2 days away from the second week ending of a full government shutdown, a government shutdown which has furloughed some 800,000 employees.…”