Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the last Congress was the most productive in the history of the country. Some say not the most productive, but certainly no one disagrees that it is the most productive since Franklin Roosevelt was President during his first term. But since there is a new majority in the House, this Congress has been altogether different and that is an understatement. Consistently this Congress has taken weeks or months to pass even simple, commonsense legislation and proposals that would have previously passed in minutes. The Senate has wasted literally months considering bipartisan bills only to have those bills smothered to death under nonrelevant Republican amendments. Congressional Republicans have held even the most important jobs measures hostage to extract votes on unrelated ideological amendments-- despite the minority leader's own call to ``stop all the showboats.'' Those were his words. The Democrats and American people have endured this blatant obstruction all year--in fact, for 18 months. What is it we are talking about? Obstruction. If you look in the dictionary, it says it all. I did that this morning. The dictionary says that obstruction is a condition of being clogged or blocked. Doesn't that define what has happened here in this wonderful body we call the Senate? Republicans have clogged or blocked everything we have tried to do, even things they have agreed on.…”