Political Quotes

“Mr. President, still reserving my right to object, my friend from Texas--and I have developed a relationship with him--talks about a meeting that he did not attend. I was there. I was one of five people, the President, Speaker Boehner, Leader McConnell, Leader Pelosi, and me-- the Vice President was also there. I am sorry. I attended that meeting. The President did not say: Come on in, I am not going to talk to you, I have nothing to say, words to that effect. The meeting lasted an hour and 20 minutes. There were a lot of things said. But one thing that was not said is this ``Alice in Wonderland'' what took place in that meeting, when someone talks about the meeting who was not there. Let's talk about compromise. My friend brought up compromise. We have before us a continuing resolution. My friend, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, called me and said: We have got to work this out. We have got to get this done quickly. I thought: So how are we going to get it done? This was on September 9 after our recess ended. He said: We have got to have the 988 number for this year. I said: I cannot do that. I cannot do that. Chairman Murray's number is $70 billion above that that we passed here in the Senate. We passed that. I cannot agree to 988. He said: You have got to do it. I do not want to be fighting. I want to get this done. So I talked to Chairman Murray, Chairman Mikulski, and others.…”