Political Quotes

“I am here today to introduce three bills to make our government work a little better. Before I get to those, I would put a question to all of us in this Chamber, the thousands who are sitting here tonight in the gallery, folks watching, but those of us who have the privilege to have this job. Why are we here? What is the reason we decided to get into this line of work? There is a small number of us who, I don't know, may go on to be President or some other office. There is a handful of us who get our viral clips on the local news. There is some larger number of us who actually get our name on a big bill that makes a difference, and we are remembered by our name: The Tafts and Hartleys and Sarbanes and Oxleys. The truth is that most of us are going to be about as well-known to our successors as our predecessors are to us. We are here. We are doing a job. We will be known for the office that we held. We will be remembered for the dignity with which we held that office but not for who we are as individuals. And that is okay, right? One of my favorite pieces of advice I got when I got into this line of work was from President Obama, who said, This is not a sprint, this is a relay. And your job is to pass the baton to the next person in a little bit of a better position than you had it when you picked it up on the last leg. Now everybody in this body has different policy views, different ideas of what a better position in that relay might look like.…”