Political Quotes

“Mr. President, yesterday the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, on national TV claimed there are not enough votes to pass the bill and bring an end to the dangerous government shutdown. I believe he is mistaken. Two hundred Democratic Members of the House of Representatives said they would vote for the bill to reopen the government, and 22 Republicans in the House have said publicly they would vote for the bill. We have heard there are as many as 100 who wish to vote for it. No matter how we do the math, it adds up to a majority of the Members of the House of Representatives. If there were only a mechanism for polling all Members of the House of Representatives to find out whether they support the Senate-passed bill, one surefire way to find out whether the bill would pass is to have a vote on it; that is, to vote on the legislation that has already been passed in the Senate. There is a way; have a vote. That would settle the question for a long, long, time, wouldn't it. What I say to the Speaker: Allow a vote on the resolution that would end the shutdown, legislation that you, John Boehner, proposed in the first place. The entire Federal Government could reopen for business by tomorrow morning. I ask the Speaker, why are you afraid? Are you afraid this measure will pass, the government will reopen and America will realize you took the country hostage for no apparent reason? Why is the Speaker opposed to these reasonable solutions.…”