Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to implore my colleagues and the President to end the shutdown and reopen the Federal Government. We are now on day 34 of this shutdown, which is well past being the longest in American history. When you think about what our country has been through: the Civil War, World War I, World War II; you think about the protests we had; what we had with the country in the Depression; what we had only a decade ago with the biggest downturn since the Depression--through all of that, even through a few shutdowns, we somehow, in this Chamber and in the House and in the White House, were able to get our act together and were somehow able to keep the government open. Now is the time to open the government, Mr. President. The 800,000 Federal employees who are not being paid are keenly aware that this is the longest shutdown on record. Another sad milestone is coming if the shutdown continues through tomorrow. These workers will miss yet another paycheck. These are workers, like a Federal prison worker in Rochester, MN, who noted to me that the inmates were getting paid but the prison workers are not. She was so excited to get this job a few months ago. Her child was in daycare. She is a single mom, and now she has to decide between taking some other job and moonlighting.…”