Political Quotes

“I appreciate you keeping me posted, but my frustration is that this issue has been hanging around for a very long period of time. When Mr. Cantor had your position as majority leader, he indicated he was receptive to addressing it. The gentleman is correct; I was not there either, but I believe the Speaker is reported as having said it needs to be addressed. I understand bottom-up, but if bottom doesn't work, you never get up. I refer to the Export-Import Bank that lay sanguinely for 2 years in the committee because the chairman was opposed to it when the majority of your party was for it when it came to the floor. So it is one thing to say that we ought to work bottom-up, but if the bottom is a stopper and creates gridlock, frankly, this body does not get to do what its responsibility is, and that is to reflect the will of the people, as we did on the Export-Import Bank. So I sympathize with the bottom-up, and that is the way it ought to work; but if, in fact, what we have is a blockage to the people's Representatives having the ability to work their will and reflect the United States citizens' views, then democracy is not working. We saw that in the Export-Import Bank, in my opinion, which I worked on very, very assiduously for over 2 years to get to this floor. Very frankly, when it did get to this floor, as I said repeatedly, it would enjoy the majority's support. In my view, if a voting rights bill gets to this floor, it will enjoy the majority's support.…”