Political Quotes

“a couple years ago I surprised everyone--but I didn't surprise myself--when I selected Patty Murray as chair of the supercommittee. At the time Patty was chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, she was a member of the Budget Committee, and I thought she would do a remarkably good job because I had such faith in her integrity, her temperament, her wisdom, and her ability to get things done. The country should be so pleased with the work she was able to do on a bipartisan basis with Paul Ryan. It is really a kind of unconventional pair working together to come up with a budget that we can work on for 2 years. We have numbers now. I am very pleased that budget negotiators Murray and Ryan have come up with an agreement today that will roll back the painful arbitrary cuts of sequester and prevent another costly government shutdown. I again commend Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray for making this possible. But it is also fair-- and I hope this doesn't get him in trouble in the House--to say that Chairman Ryan also worked hard. It was a compromise. We didn't get what we wanted, they didn't get what they wanted, but that is what legislation is all about--working together. ``Compromise'' is not a bad word. We believed all along that Congress should set sound fiscal policy through the regular order of the budget process and not through hostage-taking or crisis-making.…”