Political Quotes

“I am grateful for the recognition. I am grateful for my colleague from Hawaii and for my colleagues from across the country who are going to be coming to the floor tonight. This is going to be a long evening because there are a lot of folks who are frustrated. There is frustration not just about the actual bill itself, a lot of this frustration right now is building because of the brokenness of this process. It is a process that is right now about secrecy. It is a process that has been conducted behind closed doors in back rooms. It is a process that is not reflective of our history, of our traditions, or of the many calls from both sides of the aisle, in my short time in the Senate, hearing echoes of a chorus from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who talk about regular order, regular order, regular order. Several of my colleagues and I earlier were asking for unanimous consent--trying to use the process of the Senate to bring about a better process--a process that would bring this legislation out into the light of day and create an opportunity reflective of the Affordable Care Act, where we would have people able to put input into this process. A debate would happen. Discussion would happen. Actually, we would come forward with a bill the American public would see go through the debates. In fact, through the process, the very Constitutional Convention of this country--perhaps some of the biggest issues of humanity--were debated in an open forum.…”