Political Quotes

“it has been 47 days since the Senate passed its sensible progrowth budget. As my friend the minority leader has said many times, after the Senate passed a budget, the next logical step would be to go to conference and try to find common ground. This is what Senator McConnell said earlier this year: We ought not to ignore the law any longer. And I think it's a good step in the direction of getting back to regular order, which we ought to follow. After years of calling for regular order, Republicans ought to be eager to go to conference. Senator McConnell and the Republican caucus pulled a 180--a flip-flop. They were for regular order before they were against regular order. For weeks Republicans have refused to go to conference, and they have refused to explain why. The only excuse Republicans offered came not from the minority leader but from the junior Senator from Texas. Senator Cruz objected to the budget conference on the grounds that Democrats must concede basically everything before Republicans will negotiate anything. As one news reporter put it, the Republicans' offer is: ``First surrender, then we will fight.'' Republicans know as well as Democrats that is not any way to negotiate. Unilateral disarmament in the legislative process is not the same thing as compromise. Democrats--along with the media and the American people--are left to wonder and guess the real reason the Republicans are so determined to avoid a budget conference.…”