Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleague from New York for his comments this morning. He is right. We have seen this play before. We know how it ends. Senator McConnell, the Republican leader, comes to the floor and proclaims that his latest creation is bipartisan; the Democrats have a choice to vote yes or no; take it or leave it; we are done. We have been through this over and over again. That is not how Congress or human activity works. We have a split government between Democrats and Republicans. When we sit down together and compromise, good things can happen. We proved it March 26. The vote was 96 to 0 for the CARES Act, a $3 trillion bill early on to address the coronavirus pandemic and to deal with the serious challenges to our economy. Thank goodness we did it. It gave $600 a week in additional Federal supplements and unemployment to families who were facing layoffs and closures of their businesses. We helped small businesses injecting billions of dollars back into protecting their payroll and keeping the lights on for the day when they can return. It worked, and it worked on a bipartisan basis, but where we are today reflects a failure and a repetition on the Republican side. Explain to me this: Why did the Republican Senate leader refuse to physically present himself at any stage of the negotiation since March 26 for relief from this coronavirus pandemic? That is right.…”