Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have the opportunity to speak on the floor of the Senate for the first time as part of the work of the Senate. I am pleased to be here on a day when the Senate is addressing the topic of health care because clearly it was a major topic on the minds of Missourians and all Americans last year. I support the amendment the Senator from Kentucky has offered that would repeal the health care bill and make us start again looking at how we make the health care system work better. This is my first speech to the Senate, so let me say a couple things about that. As I look in the desk drawer, I understand the tradition of the Senate is that people who have used this desk, the desk I get to use on the Senate floor--and coming from the House where nobody had a desk, it is quite an accomplishment just to get a desk--but the desk I will use on the Senate floor has names carved in it by other Missourians who have used that desk before: Senator Truman, Senator Eagleton, Senator Danforth, and Senator Bond. I am honored and humbled to get to sit at the same desk those individuals used as they served our State, and they all served our State in a dedicated way. In fact, the collective service of those Senators, in various jobs working for Missourians, probably totals about two centuries of collective service, where they worked hard for Missourians and worked hard to advance the views they believed were so important.…”