Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we are here dealing with reality, not a world of fantasy. We are dealing with reality. The reality is, the debt ceiling is fast approaching, and we have to raise it or default on our debt. We have a matter before this body that would increase the debt ceiling until March of 2013. It would reduce the debt by $2.4 trillion on basically issues that the Republicans voted on. They talk about, I don't think we need to do the overseas contingency fund because the wars that were started--and still going on--by President Bush cost a lot of money, trillions of dollars. The Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget have said those wars are winding down. As a result of that, we will save $1 trillion. They have scored it. That is a reduction in our debt. I also think that if the Republicans have some way they want to improve my legislation, please let somebody know. If they don't want to call me, call the President of the United States. But we have to work forward. Mine is the only proposal we have. If mine passes, we will continue to push this because it should pass because it is the only proposal we have left. My friend says let us vote. We say the same thing. Let us vote. We want to vote. Why in the world, on something as important as this, can't we have an up-or-down vote as they had in the House? To underline my point, my friend, the assistant Democratic leader, the whip, served in the House longer than I did.…”