Political Quotes

“Also, Mr. President, I want to comment on a piece of legislation that two of my colleagues, Senator McCain, and the Senator from Texas, Senator Hutchison, introduced regarding the prevention of the Government shutdown. We went through this game, as you know, last year, and wound up having the Government shut down and innocent people, who were doing a good job in their capacity working for the Government, were caught in this whipsaw of conflict between the Congress and the President. Senator Hutchison and Senator McCain have brought forth this amendment, this idea, which essentially will see that that does not happen. I am a bit surprised, given the amount of criticism that we took from the President on the Government shutdown--he gave us most of the blame, although he, I think, deserves equal credit, if you will--at the opposition, stated opposition to this amendment by the President. I hope the President could support a proposal which eliminates the threat of a Government shutdown as we work toward getting a budget agreement. Basically, it locks in place spending at last year's appropriation levels until we do it, and not shut down the Federal Government.”