Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I could not agree more that we need to do this. I think it is important that the Senate take the lead as we did on another piece of legislation that our friend from California brought forward, and which was passed unanimously by the Senate, to set down a very important principle; that is, if we, those making decisions, cannot come together, then it should be Members of Congress not getting a paycheck. Our troops should be getting paid, but Members of Congress should see their paychecks stopped. Unfortunately, under law right now Members of Congress would be the only ones whose paychecks don't stop. That is something we have passed in the Senate, to change that. Frankly, I found that to be pretty embarrassing. Then it became outrageous when we found out that the troops' paychecks might stop. So it is important we send two messages: people who are responsible for making this decision take responsibility and their paychecks stop if it doesn't get done, but also we have to make sure the men and women in harm's way continue to have our support verbally and that we show it in our priorities as well. I hope we are not going to see this happen. There is no reason for this to happen. We are talking about a shutdown that would not only affect many people around this country--families, small businesses--it would affect also the markets, our international standing. This is a very serious issue. People of good will can solve this. We all know we have to be smart.…”