Political Quotes

“Mr. President, if I could ask the majority leader a question through the Chair. Unfortunately, I was not able to hear the majority leader's speech, for which I apologize. I was in a meeting, and as soon as I found out he was speaking, I rushed to the floor. I want to make sure, since this is an important bill and an important issue, that I understand precisely what it is the majority leader is proposing. So I ask through the Chair whether the majority leader is proposing a procedure where there would be no amendments and the tree would be filled or whether the majority leader is proposing an agreement that he and I and Senator Lieberman discussed yesterday, which would have allowed for 15 amendments, 10 on the Republican side and 5 on the Democratic side. Again, if the majority leader explained this and I missed it, I apologize. I received conflicting information about how the majority leader intends to proceed on this important bill. I note that we have been in quorum calls for hours during which we could have proceeded to the tax bill and started working on it, and we could be working this weekend as well. But I would very much appreciate hearing from the majority leader exactly what his intent is.”