Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I would like to thank the Senator from Maryland for allowing me the opportunity to speak during this discussion of the supplemental appropriations bill. Also, it is my first opportunity to publicly congratulate the Senator from Maryland on her achievement of becoming the chairman of the committee I am a member of, and I look forward to working with her on an ongoing basis over the next 2 years as we work our way through appropriations bills. I look forward to seeing that we do right and well and that we appropriately take care of the taxpayers' dollars. While the supplemental is important--and I am anxious that we move forward and vote on the amendments and its final passage--I would like to take this moment to speak, here on December 28, on the reason we are back in Washington, DC--the so-called looming fiscal cliff. It is unusual for the Senate to be in session at this point in time, just a few days after Christmas and a few days before the New Year. I believe it has not been since 1970 that the Senate has cast votes during this period of time. Our country faces a significant financial challenge, and I hope the House, the Senate, and the President are up to the task. I want to reach an agreement. I want to avoid finding out the consequences of no agreement. We have heard the predictions of the Congressional Budget Office that suggest that the U.S. economy will be driven back into a recession should we go over the cliff.…”