Political Quotes

“``Come back, Shane.'' Maybe many of you are not old enough to remember that wonderful movie. Shane rode off and the little boy intoned, ``Come back, Shane.'' I haven't gone anywhere. Democrats have no ability to shut down the government on the floor of this House. Hear me: We don't have the votes to shut down government and we don't want to shut down government. Maybe the leader also wants those 90 of his--he is not our leader. He is the leader of the majority party, and 90 of his people did not follow him. I presume he must be much more concerned about that. With all due respect, he is my friend, but not my leader. We voted to give 90 days and nothing was accomplished in that 90 days other than working on a tax bill that we think is a disaster for this country. Nothing. The gentleman talks about passing these appropriations bills. We knew they wouldn't pass the Senate and we told him so. We said: Let's do it on a bipartisan basis. But, no. By the way, Mr. Speaker, it was the least regular order prior to an omnibus at the end of a year in dealing with appropriations bills that I have ever seen. They packaged, I think it was four or five the first time--four, I think, and then the balance of eight. We didn't consider them individually. We didn't have an opportunity to consider them thoughtfully, no. It was one big package, for or against. I said I read that book. It was anything but regular order. By the way, Mr.…”