Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this continuing resolution. All of us know we are having this debate at a challenging and tense time. We are facing an entirely unnecessary government shutdown, a shutdown that has already been disruptive to critical governmental functions and to our communities, and which may become radically more so. But we all know--everyone in this Chamber knows--this could have been avoided. This is a politically generated crisis. In December, this House had the opportunity to pass an omnibus appropriations bill--12 subcommittee bills, each written with bipartisan cooperation, with substantial savings relative to the President's budget request--and Republicans in the Senate refused to even consider that omnibus bill. So, failing that, we asked, What about a yearlong continuing resolution with even more savings? Again, Republicans in the Senate said they would filibuster such a bill, so here we are. What our friends on the other side of the aisle opted for instead was a potential March shutdown that they thought they could use to leverage the tea party agenda. Now, I and many others on this side of the aisle have been willing in recent weeks to vote for two short-term continuing resolutions to give the process of negotiation more time. We accepted additional cuts, cuts that avoided real damage to the recovering economy or to critical investments. Unfortunately, the resolution before us today breaks with that pattern.…”