Political Quotes

“no one needs to take my word for it. Take the word of one of the most senior Republicans in this body, the senior Senator from Tennessee. He came to the floor a few days ago and said-- on the appropriations bills we hear this plaintive plea: Let's have some votes. So the Senator from Tennessee said: Why don't we have the votes? What has been established around here is that we have 60 votes on anything that is controversial and 50 votes on everything else, and that is what the Senator from Tennessee said. Let's just go ahead and work through the bills. There is no better example of that than Dodd-Frank, a bill that the Republicans hate. It passed. On the 24th amendment that we voted on, on that bill, Senator Durbin offered an amendment on swipe fees, and he was told it was going to be 60 votes. Everything else had been 50. So he had to do his with 60 votes. That is how things work here. The Republicans don't want to have votes. They want to have issues on procedure. We could finish every one of those appropriations bills-- every one of them--if we followed what Lamar Alexander suggested and what we Democrats have suggested. So it is interesting. It is interesting. Energy issues--it is just a buzzword for ``let's take care of the oil companies some more.'' That is what this is all about. They want to protect big oil. Now, if they want to have all the appropriations bills pass, let's pass them.…”