Political Quotes

“Madam President, we find ourselves in a peculiar condition. We must have the people across this country scratching their heads and wondering: What are those guys doing? We know the American people do not think much of us as it is, but they are surely going to think less of us when they see what is happening. We have a tradition in our country that when disaster strikes, we respond. Americans pull together and help each other. We saw that happening in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, which devastated New Jersey and other States along the east coast, and other natural disasters hitting our country across its breadth--forest fires in one State, water shortages in another, and other problems in others. There isn't a State in this country that hasn't felt the wrath of a storm or the difficulty that nature presents. But the one thing we don't see is the spirit of cooperation. It certainly doesn't extend to some of our colleagues. I look at the House disaster relief proposal, and one thing is for sure: It is totally inadequate. Madam President, this is an emergency, and it is just plain heartless for our colleagues to turn their backs on families who are struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. I don't know what they are thinking because we know difficulties have struck all 50 of our States at one time or another, a lot fairly recently. Yet these people are saying: No, we are not going to give you enough money to deal with the emergencies that we have.…”