Political Quotes

“I appreciate my friend's statement. I didn't hear it all, but I certainly heard the context of the statement. We are willing to work with him and his staff, as we have, to try to come up with a solution. I want the record to reflect very clearly, as I said in my remarks this morning, for my friends who didn't have the opportunity to hear it, we cannot have in this country a 6-month extension because a 6-month extension is no extension. A 6-month extension of what we are dealing with would put us back, in a matter of weeks, in the same fiscal extravaganza trying to move forward with the work of the country. The country is locked down. Congress is inoperable. The White House is unable to do very much because they are focused on this huge problem. I want the record to be spread with the fact that I will work as closely as I can on any suggestions they have, as I have indicated. But, please, everyone, don't come to me with a 6-month extension. The proposal I am moving forward with--and Fred Thompson said take your chips, my Republican friends, and put them in your pocket and walk away--gives the Republicans everything they have asked for: no revenues, $2.4 trillion in cuts. That is a pretty good deal. That is not a 6-month deal; it is a solution that takes us until 2013, in the month of March. Help me work through this. I have no pride of authorship. If somebody can figure out another way to improve that suggestion, I will work with them.…”