Frank Pallone: “You know, I love Christmas, too, but when the gentleman on the other side of the aisle suggests that somehow they are…”

“You know, I love Christmas, too, but when the gentleman on the other side of the aisle suggests that somehow they are going to stay around here after today, I don't believe that for 1 minute. I guarantee you that at the end of the day, the Republicans are going to go home. The difference is they're going to go home without passing the Senate bill that allows people to get their payroll tax cut, their unemployment insurance, and the seniors to go out and be able to access Medicare. If you really cared about these issues, then you would pass the Senate bill. You wouldn't put up a vote that rejects the Senate bill and doesn't allow us to consider it at all. Don't kid anybody here. At the end of the day, the Republicans are going to go home, but the consequence for the American people is that the economy is in a very perilous situation right now. If you take this tax cut and you don't extend it, then it's very possible that people won't have money to spend, the economy won't grow, and this teetering economy could easily fall back into a recession again. So I don't know what's going on here. All I can think of is that the Tea Party Republicans--the extremists on the Republican side--are wagging the Republican dog and saying to your leadership: We don't want to do this. They don't want the payroll tax extension. They don't want the unemployment extension. I don't know why they don't care about the American people, but that's the bottom line here.…”