Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the news out of Washington is not encouraging. It looks as though we are facing a government shutdown and the possibility of even a default on the debt. These are totally unnecessary. There is nothing that is forcing this, other than the political will of some people, and both are disastrous. Shutting down the government, of course, runs the risk of disrupting Social Security payments, veterans' checks. It, of course, is damaging to our economy. At a time when we are recovering, but slowly, and we need to create jobs, it does not make any sense. We are facing a deadline, obviously, of October 1 for a new fiscal year. We passed a budget in the Senate back at the end of March, if I remember correctly. Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, worked through a budget that passed. We then asked for the obvious: Let's have a meeting with the House. It is controlled by Republicans. We have a Democratic majority here. Why don't we sit down now and work out our differences? The difference between the two budgets, about $92 billion--substantial for sure but something that is at least worth sitting down and discussing. We came to the floor of the Senate repeatedly asking for a chance to sit down and work it out. Sadly, three or four Senators on the other side of the aisle continued to object. They would not let us sit down and talk.…”