Political Quotes

“I ask my colleagues to be patient for a short time. First of all, these valiant people who are sitting in front of the Presiding Officer have been required today to read for more than 8 hours--total, without any breaks, 8 hours--for no reason other than the Republicans are trying to maintain the status quo in everything. Talk about this picture: reading an amendment that is done extremely rarely. We had our staff check, and it is done every decade or so. This was a bill of some 500 pages. The bill has been available for people to read long before today. The substitute amendment has been ready long before today. As I said earlier this week, manmade pollution is causing the Earth to warm. The science is crystal clear. We have for more than 100 years been taking carbon out of the Earth and putting it into the sky. It is causing our Earth to have a fever. Our Earth is sick, and we must look at the sickness and try to do something about it. The warming is clear. It has already harmed our environment and our economy. We know that. The scientists know that. You can see it all around us. It is causing more frequent and more intense drought, wildfires, and floods. Western wildfires. I look around this room, and I see Senator Baucus, I see the Senator from California and the Senator from Washington. In the last 30 years, 72 more days of wildfire season--72 more days--lightning striking in those 72 days. More fires. Fires are more intense. Floods, tornadoes.…”