Amy Klobuchar: “I thank very much the Senator from Louisiana for her passionate remarks. There is a reason she has that passion, and it…”

“I thank very much the Senator from Louisiana for her passionate remarks. There is a reason she has that passion, and it is because we are in the ninth inning. This is it. The time for political posturing is over. There is no more time to say we are not going to talk to each other. There is no more time to pretend we can have one plan and then another plan. It is time to get an agreement. Look at what has happened in just the past week. The markets have gone down more than they have in over a year. We have seen realtors-- and this is a study that just came out a few days ago--people backed away from one out of six deals this past month. If you look at the month before, it was only 1 out of 25. People are feeling the uncertainty in this economy, and it is time to come to a bipartisan agreement. Last week, I held a call with business leaders from across my State to update them on the status of negotiations, to hear their thoughts and their concerns, and to answer their questions. Their message back to me was clear and unified: If we fail to act, the consequences for our economy are real and serious. I will be honest. They don't care what combination of votes--Democratic, Republican--it takes to get us across the finish line. Many of them may prefer Republican plans, and some would prefer a Democratic plan. What they want is consistency. They want us to get this done. They want us to not default on our debt.…”