Political Quotes

“I thank the ranking member of the Rules Committee, my friend, Ms. Slaughter, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that I have a great deal of respect for the gentleman from Oklahoma. But I say that this House is not working. And the American people are angry with all of us, 100 percent of us. The gentleman from Florida just said ``surely we can find common ground.'' The gentleman talked about shutting down the government being an unreasonable response, although many in his party promote that. The President's not promoting it; the President is against it. You know our side is against that. Surely, we can reach common ground. Yesterday, we had eight bills on the floor on suspension. The public doesn't know process, I understand that--they're not too interested in hearing about process. But suspensions make for short debates and no amendments, no ability to make changes in those bills. That's why they were offered on suspension. {time} 1315 Apparently, three of those bills were pulled because they didn't think they had the votes. I don't think they had the votes either-- ``they'' being the majority. So what did they do in their pursuit of a transparent ``let the House work its will'' pledge that they had made to the American public when they sought control, being in the majority? They've gone to the Rules Committee. One rule, five bills. How can you debate five different bills with rules, whether the rules are correct? And what are those rules?…”