Political Quotes

“I heard one of my friends on the other side of the aisle come here this afternoon and talk about why we aren't getting more things done here; why are we doing the Defense authorization bill now; when are we going to do the Defense appropriations bill. Maybe they should have thought of that before they did 45 different filibusters here in the Senate. The Republican minority has stopped the work of this country. We have fought back with the very slim majority we have. I will remind everyone within the sound of my voice that Senator Johnson has been ill. He is back now, thank goodness. He is back. He overcame a tremendous illness, and he is back with us. My majority was 50 to 49--that is, the Democratic majority--and we have had to fight, that little majority has had to fight everything that we have done. Everything. We had to file cloture on things they agreed with us on, just eating up valuable time here in the Senate. I am going to have to file cloture again tonight on another matter. This will be the third time we have worked on the Defense authorization bill. I am not going to belabor the point except to say this is the wrong thing to be talking about here: Why aren't we moving more quickly? In spite of all the obstacles--procedural in nature--they have thrown up against us, we have done some remarkable things. We passed an increase in the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years.…”