Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentleman's recitation of history. Let me remind him, the first year I was majority leader, all 12 appropriations bills passed the House prior to the August break--all 12. That also happened the third year. It didn't happen the second year when we had a lot of political delays. And the reason we went to structured rules, as the gentleman I'm sure recalls, because we had filibuster by amendment. We had delay and obstruction in 2007, just as we have delay and obstruction today, just as there is a refusal today to go to conference. Over 120 days after both Houses have passed their budgets, we still have refusal to go to conference. That is why you can't get agreement. The gentleman characterizes, I think Mr. Ryan has talked to Senator Murray, and I will tell you that Senator Murray does not believe it was a very long discussion or a very substantive discussion because--and you talk about Mr. Ryan. I've got a quote of his I know you'll like that I want to get to because it makes the point I'm making. I was going to make it a little later. Paul Ryan, when asked about Senate Republicans' plan to work with Democrats to address the debt ceiling, said: It doesn't matter. We're not going to do what they want to do. It doesn't really matter what they do. It doesn't matter what John McCain and others do on the taxes and the rest. If they want to give up taxes for the sequester, we're not going to do that. So that doesn't really affect us.…”