Political Quotes

“Mr. President, yesterday I made the Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner an offer I thought he could not refuse, but he did. House Republican leaders have demanded the Senate join them in a conference committee to work out budget differences. That seemed like a good idea to me. That is why Democrats yesterday asked consent to do exactly that, go to conference--on anything. You want to talk about spending; you want to talk about health care; you want to talk about agriculture; you want to talk about the post office, it does not matter. We are happy to do so. Our agreement that we proposed to them: whatever you want to talk about. So I formally offered that, first in a letter to the Speaker. I talked to him. Then I came to the floor here and reiterated the offer. My only condition: that the conferees negotiate in the light of day while the government is open for business. That did not seem too unreasonable. To my surprise, the Speaker refused and the Senate Republicans objected. House Republicans truly do not know what they want. They cannot take yes for an answer. We have agreed to their budget number, which we thought should be higher. We agreed to that. They want to go to conference. We agreed to that. But they have had trouble agreeing to anything for quite some time now. This spring, after years of Republicans loudly longing for a budget passed by the Senate, despite already having a budget with the force of law, we decided: Let's give them their way.…”