Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his comments, and that would be a positive effort, I think, towards that. Of course, if we could adopt a budget and if we could adopt appropriation bills and Ways and Means recommendations pursuant to such a budget, that would be a very much appreciated option to the sequester. Having said that, the Budget Committee did a markup this week on Wednesday, and I know members of the committee worked well into the night, both Republicans and Democrats. And I wanted to ask the gentleman, I know that normally when we bring a budget--both sides have brought a budget--which does in fact allow for substitutes, but for the most part it does not allow individual amendments. Now I say that because so many amendments were rejected in the committee. Mr. Cardenas from California offered an amendment to protect the mortgage interest deduction for the middle class. That amendment was voted for unanimously by Democrats and unanimously opposed by Republican members of the committee. Mr. Cicilline offered an amendment to protect workers from privatizing Social Security. Again, on a partisan vote, with Democrats supporting the Cicilline amendment and Republicans opposing it, it was rejected. Mr. Jeffries from New York offered an amendment to prevent the student loan interest rate from doubling, which as the gentleman knows is set to occur on June 30 without our action.…”