Political Quotes

“to my friend, the senior Senator from Illinois, we have seen what has gone on these last few months, through this whole year, with a group of people who are giving press conferences, holding demonstrations. They want the government to stay closed. They wanted it closed in the first place. The hardship we have over this country is awful. If that is not good enough, they are boasting they want the country to fail its obligations to pay its bills. These are not new programs. These are obligations we have. That is one of the problems. The proposal they have would not allow--for example, my friend is the chair of what some say is the most important part of the Federal Government, to protect the safety and security of the United States, the subcommittee dealing with defense that was led many decades by Senator Dan Inouye. The proposal they have sent gives the President of the United States, the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff, no flexibility whatsoever when sequestration kicks in on the 15th. We are not asking to change those numbers. We agreed to those numbers. We voted to approve those numbers, but they won't even allow flexibility to allow the Department of Defense to shift that money around. I do not know how the defense of this country can go forward if they don't have flexibility with losing $22 billion beginning January 15. They don't even give authority for that. The bill they are sending over is doomed to failure.…”