Political Quotes

“I rose yesterday to talk about the consequences of a budget shutdown, and I rise again today--hours away from facing that reality. What I cannot understand for the life of me is after having agreed to $78 billion in cuts, more than almost 80 percent of the way of where our Republican colleagues originally stated they wanted to be--the last time I checked on a negotiation, when someone comes 80 percent of the way to where you are, you have done rather well. Yet, even in the face of having made those very deep cuts--some of which will clearly affect major services delivered to individuals in this country, but coming together for the understanding of what is necessary to both get this budget year done and being able to begin to significantly reduce the deficit--it is still not enough. Why? Because of a driving force in the House of Representatives on the Republican side that insists on social issues that have nothing to do with the budget and keeping the Nation's business open and making sure this economy stays on track, and growing jobs, and putting families back to work. I will talk about that issue in a minute. But, again, I wish to revisit that this isn't about some museums closing on The Mall, even though that in and of itself has a tourism and dollar effect on our economy to all those places throughout the country that would be closed down. This is about businesses here in America. Today the New York Times gave examples of that.…”