Political Quotes

“Madam President, I have just come on the floor and have to chuckle about my friend from Texas in his deciding that it is the minority in the Senate that is holding up legislation that needs to be brought up when we have been coming to the floor every day after Senator McConnell has indicated he is probably the Grim Reaper and after we have indicated very clearly that he has turned this into a legislative graveyard. So I have to smile when I hear the words from my friend. Let me set the record straight before I talk about what I came to the floor to talk about. Amazingly, the House of Representatives, even with the challenge that it has in front of it--that it didn't ask for, that it didn't welcome, that was brought to it by the continued abuse of power and other actions of the President of the United States--is fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities. It has passed over 300 different pieces of legislation and has sent them over to the U.S. Senate. It is my understanding that 250 of those bills are bipartisan bills; yet we can't get any of them to be taken up on the floor of the Senate. We come to the floor every week. I am involved in efforts every week to say: Let's pass the bill that will protect people's pensions. People who have worked their whole lives and are close to retirement or are already retired in my State who have put money in pensions are getting 50, 60, 70 percent cuts in their pensions because they got caught in the financial crisis.…”