Political Quotes

“today is day 20 of the Government shutdown and the spin coming from the Republican side goes something like this: Well, you know, it is not really our shutdown. It is President Clinton's shutdown. Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very clear to the American people that nothing could be further from the truth. The President does not have the power to end this shutdown. He can take no unilateral action, because if he could, he would. But he can take no unilateral action that will end this shutdown. It is not his shutdown. The only way he can shut it down is to acquiesce to the Republicans' demands. It is in fact the shutdown of the Gingrich Republicans, because they have the power by virtue of being in the majority and by virtue of having the votes to pass a clean continuing resolution which could put Government employees back to work. Let there be no mistake. This is a Gingrich Republican shutdown. Mr. Speaker, the second spin we hear is in reality it is just bickering and really both sides are at fault. That is not true. We have 198 votes to put Federal employees back to work, to pay contractors for work that they do for our country. But it is not just Democrats. In the Senate, Mr. Dole says enough is enough. So, on the Senate side both Democrats and Republicans are willing to put Federal workers back to work, and House Democrats are ready to put Federal employees back to work. It seems to me it is clear that this is not a matter of more partisan bickering.…”