Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his comments. Very frankly, I wasn't going to mention what happened on the floor today, but the gentleman has brought it up. The gentleman is correct; the committee passed out a bipartisan bill. A lot of Democrats voted for that bill. The problem, of course, is that 62 Republicans voted against the bill as it was amended, notwithstanding the fact they voted for the last amendment that was adopted, which we think was a draconian amendment that would have hurt the poorest citizens in our country very badly. So we turned a bipartisan bill into a partisan bill. I will tell my friend, very frankly, you did the same thing--not you personally, but your side of the aisle did the same thing with respect to the Homeland Security bill, which was reported out on a voice vote from the Appropriations Committee, that we would have voted for on a bipartisan basis, except an amendment was adopted with your side voting overwhelmingly for it, knowing full well that our side could not support that. So I tell you, with all due respect, Mr. Majority Leader, I wasn't going to bring up what happened today. But what happened today is you turned a bipartisan bill--necessary for our farmers, necessary for our consumers, necessary for the people of America--that many of us would have supported and you turned it into a partisan bill.…”