Political Quotes

“I want to inform the gentleman that the White House has just issued an intent to veto the resolution that you are offering. I tell my friend that if, in fact, the gentleman wants to keep the government running while negotiations proceed, we have already agreed to substantial billions of dollars in reductions in spending for 2011. We did so, and we've agreed on that. As a matter of fact, as the gentleman knows, I have voted for both of the previous resolutions. I believed both of those could pass; and, in fact, I was correct. They did pass. I tell my friend this resolution, in my view, will not pass. However, it is my understanding that both the Speaker and Mr. Reid and the President are continuing to have discussions to try to overcome this impasse. That is the legislative process. We never shut down the government when we had the majority and President Bush was in power. And I tell my friend the reason we did not shut it down is because we agreed with the premise you have stated and the premise the Speaker has stated that shutting down the government was not a process that was useful for our economy, for jobs, for our people or for the services that are expected of us. What is useful is for us to rationally provide a context in which negotiations, which quite obviously have not yet been completed, are completed.…”