Political Quotes

“in the fall of 2015, when I first spoke on the Senate floor, I gave Nebraskans and every Member of this body my word that I would speak up when a Republican President exceeded his or her powers. At that moment, the Democratic President had taken to himself powers the Constitution had not given him. My opposition was not that President Obama was a Democrat but rather that our brilliant Constitution intentionally separates executive and legislative powers. I gave my promise then because, despite the lazy, partisan rhetoric of this city, not everything is actually a blood feud between Republicans and Democrats. That is because American politics at its best is acutely aware of the difference between justice and strength. That is because when our body is working well in the Senate, we take seriously our history, our duties, and our unique place in the Constitution's architecture of separate powers, both vertically and horizontally. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Obama administration had made unconstitutional appointments when it declared this body to be in recess when the U.S. Senate was not, in fact, in recess, and it functionally claimed power--that is, the administration functionally claimed power--that belonged to the Senate under our Constitution. So today I have come to the floor to keep my promise and to offer a word of humble advice to the President.…”