Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak about the current debate over the current Federal budget. On Tuesday, a very telling and very troubling vote was held in the House of Representatives. In order to pass the 3-week continuing resolution needed to avert a government shutdown, which we are considering here in the Senate today, Speaker Boehner was forced to rely on votes from House Democrats. He had to do so because conservative Republicans abandoned their party leadership in droves. They fumed that the measure lacked special interest add-ons dealing with ideological issues such as abortion, net neutrality, and global warming. In all, 54 conservative Republicans rejected the measure--even though it was necessary to avert a shutdown, even though their own leadership negotiated the proposal, and even though it included $6 billion in additional cuts to domestic discretionary spending. This is a bad omen. Last week, the Senate held two test votes: one on H.R. 1 and one on a Democratic alternative. We knew that neither proposal would have the votes to pass and, sure enough, both went down. The purpose of those votes was to make it clear that both sides' opening bids in this debate were nonstarters and thus pave the way for a serious and good-faith compromise. But, unfortunately, an intense ideological tail continues to wag the dog over in the House of Representatives. Speaker Boehner had hoped after H.R.…”