Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is appropriate that we are here on this July 4 holiday week. I joined a number of my colleagues last week who made it clear it was important for us to be here. Raising the debt ceiling is a significant issue we face, and while I am pleased to see the discussion ongoing on the Senate floor today, we do need actions that speak louder than our words. I say that knowing I am coming here to talk about an issue that we have attempted to bring to the attention of my colleagues in the Senate now for a long time. We have a looming financial crisis. All the Democratic leadership was capable of bringing up on the Senate floor this week was a sense of the Senate that wealthy Americans should pay their fair share of something. I suppose we will have a discussion about that, which has begun and will continue for the next few days. But I believe Americans deserve leadership in our Nation's Capital to confront the real fiscal challenges--not just this desire to kick the can down the road and ignore the crisis we face. In my view, our President and the Senate leadership have failed to lead. They have failed to adopt the President's own Deficit Reduction Commission report. The President has not proposed the results of that report. They have failed to pass a budget in over 2 years.…”