Political Quotes

“Sixty-one days we have been begging the Republicans--we have been begging the Republicans, not all of them, to give us an opportunity to go to conference and work out our differences, if we can. That is the regular order. And each time we have asked, as Senator Kaine of Virginia did this morning, there has been a condition to it: No, you can't sit down to try to work out your differences unless you agree ahead of time to take certain things off the table. That is not reasonable. It is not reasonable if you are serious about the deficit, if you are serious about the debt of the United States. I could dream up a half dozen things. All right, I won't allow us to go to conference if it in any way is going to touch Social Security benefits. All right? I think I would need a lot of support for that, and we wouldn't go to conference. But at the end of the day, if we are serious about the deficit, we are supposed to sit down and work out our differences, House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans. When Senator Kaine makes this unanimous consent request to go to a conference committee, he is asking for the regular order of business around here.”