Political Quotes

“I appreciate the question of the Senator, and it is one I have given a great deal of thought. I think there have been a lot of discussions around here about fancy changes to the budget process and new bills and new budget processes and new rules and everything. I always stop and say: Wait a minute. We could have a budget process written by Aristotle and Thomas Jefferson, but if we don't do our job, it is not going to work. That is essentially where we are now. That is one of the reasons I voted no last night. I have had it with CRs--continuing resolutions--which really means ``can't resolve.'' We can't make decisions. I want to talk, with the indulgence of the Senator from Montana, a bit about this part of why we are where we are. I think this is a deeper issue because where we are today is going to simply be repeated 6 months from now, a year from now, 3 months from now, and 5 years from now. It just keeps going on. It is one of the reasons we can't get where we are going. I was a Governor of Maine in the 1990s. I remember vividly, and I can almost tell you where I was standing in my office when a group of legislators--we had a budget deadline of July 1. A group of legislators came to me because budgets are hard. We all know that. It is hard to resolve some of these issues.…”