Political Quotes

“Very quickly, Madam President, I was very disappointed to hear Speaker Boehner say yesterday that he was giving up on reaching a bipartisan agreement to avoid huge cuts to both domestic and defense programs. I don't feel that way. I can assure everyone within the sound of my voice that I have not given up on finding a reasonable and balanced approach to reducing our debt and avoiding these difficult cuts. Democrats agree that across-the-board cuts are not the best way to solve the problems. Sequestration is a bitter pill, but we did that on purpose. That was no accident. That is why there was overwhelming support for the budget deficit reduction act to have sequestration. The sequestration was engineered to be hard to take, so it forced us to compromise. It was designed to be tough enough to force the two sides to reach a balanced deal. That is why there was widespread bipartisan support for this. I hope Speaker Boehner will reconsider. I believe it is much too early to give up. I urge my Republican colleagues not to give up on themselves because I am not going to give up on them. It is time for them to stop rooting for the economy to fail and root for Congress to succeed and reach common ground. Remember, the markets are watching our every move, with Moody's saying yesterday that they were thinking of downgrading our debt standing credit rating. This is not the right time to say there is no hope in getting things done. I disagree.…”