Political Quotes

“I rise today for one simple reason, and that reason is to tell this body to stop pointing fingers and start writing a budget that works for not only my State but every State in the Union. It can be done. It has been done many, many times before. Unfortunately, this year our budget ran out on September 30. We had a CR that took us from the next day, October 1, to December 8. When December 8 rolled around, we had another continuing resolution to take us from December 8 to December 22. When December 22 came around, we had another CR that took us from December 22 to January 19, and that is where we are today, because some of us said enough is enough. We need to have a budget that works for this country. Here we are on day 2 of the government shutdown, and this body can't even agree to pay our troops. That is how dysfunctional we have become. Now we are using military men and women as political pawns because of the dysfunction we have here in Washington, DC. In the past, we have always taken care of these folks because our servicemembers and their families have sacrificed much for this country, but we continue to draw it out--the leadership of this body--for political gains. The folks I talk to, the rank-and-file folks on both sides of the aisle, think it is ridiculous. They think it is ridiculous that we have gotten here in the first place.…”