Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to the floor to speak in morning business and to comment on the terrible situation we find ourselves in. We are in a terrible situation. The Republican leader is exactly right, the clock is ticking on a shutdown. But I have a couple principles as we head into the midnight witching hour on Friday. First of all, my first principle is no shutdown. Let's have a sitdown. Let's not shut down government and cut off the funding for private sector contractors that do business with the government. Let's have a congressional sitdown and arrive at an orderly, rational agreement that does create a more frugal government but does not torpedo our economy. But my second principle is, if we shut down the government and Federal employees and contractors do not get paid, Congress should not get paid. Not only should Congress not get paid, no back pay, no way. I spoke about the congressional no-pay position yesterday. Today, I wish to talk about the consequences of the shutdown. I am against a government shutdown. Shutting down the government breaks faith with Federal employees, jeopardizes our economic recovery, threatens the viability of small- and medium-sized businesses that do business with the Federal Government and even threatens the safety of our families and our economy. That is why I am for a congressional sitdown, not a shutdown of the Federal Government. Democrats and Republicans should negotiate over spending cuts.…”