Political Quotes

“we had a brief colloquy, the Republican leader and I, before the vote. Now that everyone is on the floor, I will elaborate a little bit. We have one more vote today. Then we are both going to have our respective caucuses. We hope there will be an announcement after that. We will have to wait and see. Over the last 24 hours, we have been working with Senator McConnell's staff and Senator McConnell to craft legislation to shield middle-class families from huge tax increases that could pass both Chambers on a bipartisan basis. But I wish to be clear. There are still serious differences between the two sides. I am only going to talk about one. We have made a lot of progress. I said earlier today, I appreciate very much Senator McConnell's good-faith efforts, and I am confident he feels the same way about me. The one thing I do want to mention is that we are not going to have any Social Security cuts. At this stage, that just doesn't seem appropriate. We are open to discussion about entitlement reforms, but we are going to have to take it in a different direction. The present status will not work. We are willing to make difficult concessions as part of a balanced comprehensive agreement, but we will not agree to cut Social Security benefits as part of a small or short-term agreement, especially if that agreement gives more handouts to the rich.…”