Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise this evening to once again address the fiscal cliff. Clearly, the time to debate has come and gone. The simple fact is we need to act and we need to act now. Earlier today, we heard from the President, and what I heard from the President is that he feels we have the framework for an agreement on taxes. Also, the Senate minority leader has indicated, after his negotiations with the Vice President, that he believes we have the basic agreement on a tax proposal to avoid the fiscal cliff. So let's take that step. Let's address the tax piece. Let's get it done. Granted, the tax proposal is not the big agreement that will fully address our debt and deficit--an agreement we hope to be able to put together, an agreement I support and one that includes tax reform, bipartisan entitlement reform, and finding savings in the Federal budget. Clearly, these items all need to be addressed, and they need to be addressed on the order of $4 trillion to get our deficit and our debt under control. That is the type of deal I favor, and it is the kind of deal we have to get to. But if we can't do it all at once, let's do it in pieces. As the old saying goes, even the longest journey begins with a single step. If the first step is this tax deal, let's get going. To break the logjam, let's start with this piece--a tax deal that will ensure taxes are not increased for middle-class Americans. That is something we can and we must do. It does involve compromise.…”