Political Quotes

“for years Republicans have been singing the praises of regular order, week after week, month after month. It has gone into years now. Even though they may not have been correct, they did it anyway. They said how they missed the days of committee markups, how they longed for an amendment vote-arama, amendments, and how they pined for a budget resolution. As the junior Senator from Texas said just before the election: Senate Democrats have not even had a budget in 3 years. They are not pretending to try to fix these problems. I think that is irresponsible. But then Republicans got what they wanted 46 days ago. Forty-six days it has been since the Senate passed its budget, but Republicans are standing in the way of moving forward in the conference. They got what they asked, and now they no longer want what they asked for. Remember, 46 days ago, under regular order, after a thorough committee markup, an all-night session--we ended at 5 a.m. in the morning--the Senate passed a budget resolution. Over the last 46 days, Republicans have stunningly and repeatedly blocked attempts to name budget conferees. If we did that, we could start down the path to compromise. That is what legislation is all about. Legislation, by definition, is the art of compromise. It is Republicans who, as Senator Cruz put it, aren't even intending to fix these problems. Republicans often have said the regular order of the budget process is the only way to get long-term sound fiscal policy.…”