Political Quotes

“I wish to thank my esteemed colleague from Illinois and take this opportunity to offer some remarks on the debt ceiling and the continuing operations of the government. I come to the floor to make an appeal for action, action on opening the government and action on addressing the debt ceiling. Of course, that requires bipartisan effort. This is something our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have to work together to accomplish. We have been negotiating, not only our leadership, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, but the Members of this body, Republican and Democratic, both sides of the aisle. We have been negotiating and talking about many different ideas, but now we need to come together and find a way to both address the debt ceiling and to reopen the government. The kinds of ideas we have discussed include a short-term extension of the debt ceiling. Certainly Members on my side of the aisle feel we have to also address the underlying problems that are leading to our growing debt and deficit. We need savings and reforms as part of addressing that debt ceiling. Also, we have talked about ideas for a continuing resolution to reopen the government, one that follows established law. By that I mean the Budget Control Act, which establishes budgetary caps that need to be kept in place and honored as part of this agreement.…”