Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as everyone here knows, we have been working on a small business jobs bill for the past several weeks. Republicans had said they would work with us to pass a bill if they were able to offer three amendments. Unfortunately, when I made this offer last week, they rejected it. During the course of the discussions, it became apparent they were more concerned about preventing votes on Democratic amendments rather than getting any votes on Republican amendments. In an effort to accommodate their concerns and break the impasse on the small business jobs bill, I decided to set up a stand-alone vote on education and public safety. These jobs are so important. I did that so we can move ahead on small business jobs. We drafted a bill that provided the $26 billion necessary for education jobs and public safety jobs, as well as the offsets to pay for that package. I offered that amendment late last Thursday and intended to have a vote on it today. Earlier today--a few hours ago, actually--CBO informed us that the score did not turn out as we intended. Basically, without going into a lot of detail, we used the same numbers the House did. Because of the intervening time, the numbers changed because this would not be completed until after we got back in September, so certain spending cuts did not produce the savings we needed. Therefore, I will ask unanimous consent to modify the amendment so it, indeed, will be budget neutral.…”