Political Quotes

“I would make several points. First, I was with an Honor Flight group at the World War II Memorial last week, a great bunch of World War II veterans who came in from Illinois, and it didn't surprise me one bit--there was no barricade stopping these veterans. They were on their way to their memorial, and they went. The reason why there was any question about this memorial and access was because of the decision by the Republicans to shut down the government. I was going to remind the Senator of Texas, who is a learned attorney and a former Texas Supreme Court justice, of the story we were told in law school. It was an anecdotal story, an apocryphal story of someone who killed both his parents, went to the courtroom, and then threw himself on the mercy of the court because he was an orphan. In this situation we have our Republican friends lamenting the impact of a government shutdown on World War II veterans coming to Washington, and on these tragic stories of families who have lost someone they love in combat. But all of this is unnecessary. All of it could have been avoided if the Republican Speaker of the House would call one bill for a vote which he knows will pass. It would open the government. That is the simple and honest answer. This notion we are going to have a series of small appropriations to fund our government--all of the appropriations bills that have been called so far and passed the House amount to about 18 percent of the discretionary domestic budget.…”