Political Quotes

“The American people deserve to know why we are in this position. They need to know that less than 5 percent of the 435 Members of this body have put us in this position. The gentleman from Texas indicated how they did that. They have held the rest of us hostage unless the bill that they want is passed. They are taking hostage the American people. They are taking hostage Federal employees. They have taken hostage the Congress of the United States. What ought to happen is the over 300 of us--147 Republicans and 165 Democrats vote to compromise. I would call all of your attention to a 1998 speech in October by Newt Gingrich, he called it the ``Perfectionist Caucus'' speech. He made a deal with Clinton because Clinton was the President. As Newt Gingrich pointed out, we had a lot of Democrats in the House, a lot of Democrats in the Senate, and a lot of Republicans in the Senate, who he said, by the way, don't always agree with us. The American people expect us to make it work. How do we make it work? We make compromises. The 5 percent that shut down the Congress for a week did it because they didn't like the compromise, and they stomped their feet and they sent us home, which of course cost money because none of us took a salary cut. Nothing got done that week.…”