Political Quotes

“We could exchange a lot of things about diamonds, but that would be quite a benchmark. This is what I am going to say: What we would like to do is return to regular order where the Senator could have brought his bill to the floor all by itself--not in the midst of a threat of a showdown, shutdown, lockdown. He could have brought it up with his ranking member. Now you have the Senator from Kansas, Mr. Moran, and we have open, public debate, transparent, going through category after category: education, special education, funding for the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Labor, all of those things. The Senator's subcommittee is one of the most robust, other than defense, and second in size in expenditure. It funds the entire Department of Labor, the entire Department of Education, and the entire Department of Health and Human Services. Under that, there are spectacular agencies and independent agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, which is literally headquartered in my hometown of Baltimore. It has, I would say, 40 percent of the domestic expenditures which meet compelling human need. It also funds the kinds of programs we need for the workforce of the future and our research of the future. The Senator deserves to have his day. Anyone who wishes to analyze it, scrutinize it, amend it, improve it from both sides of the aisle should do this.…”