Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. First of all, of course, there was no budget last year. There was a budget that was passed in the latter part of the year before, but that was for reconciliation purposes so that Republicans could pass their tax bill with less than 60 votes in the United States Senate. So I wouldn't go too far on the budget. Republicans were in charge for 8 years, and they never had a budget. That doesn't mean we didn't pass one through the House, but there was never a budget. There was never a budget that was implemented, that I can remember, in the long term. {time} 1045 But that aside, as the gentleman probably knows, I, in January, started talking with his leadership, with Ranking Member Granger, with Senator McConnell, with Senator Shelby, with Senator Leahy, with Mrs. Lowey, and with our leadership about the necessity to reach an agreement on the level of discretionary spending, which we call the caps. Clearly, as Senator McConnell pointed out in our discussions, the White House was a critical component of that because, as the gentleman knows, in order to change the sequester, which I think is one of the stupidest policies that we put in place, but in order to change the sequester, we would have to have a bill signed by the President. So, clearly, the President would have to be involved. Unfortunately, sometime thereafter, Mr. Vought and Mr.…”