Gilbert Gutknecht: “I think in the book of Ecclesiastes it talks about there is a time for everything, a time for war and a time for peace.…”

“I think in the book of Ecclesiastes it talks about there is a time for everything, a time for war and a time for peace. In politics there is a time for confrontation. There are clearly some times when you have to draw a line in the sand and say, beyond this point there is simply is no retreat. Perhaps we engaged in too much confrontation during the last Congress. But on the other hand, there is also a time for cooperation. I know some of my supporters, as the gentleman has back in Tennessee, really, they kind of like the politics of confrontation. Clearly they see it sometimes as a spectator sport. But in the end we have to do what is best for America. We have to do what is best for American kids and what is best for American seniors. So in some respects, if the gentleman and I were to sit down and write a budget agreement, probably it would not look exactly like the one we voted on this week. The same is true with the tax bill. If I could have written the tax bill, it probably would have been significantly different than the one I was proud to vote for today. In the end, this is about getting 218 votes here in the House, 51 votes in the Senate, and getting the President to sign it.”