Political Quotes

“I too want to join my colleague from Virginia in adding accolades to our Senators from Vermont and Arizona in putting together this proposal. I would like to make a few points here. First, the veterans should come first. These are people whom we sent overseas to risk their lives for us. When they come back injured, nothing should stand in the way of us giving them the best medical care possible. Senators McCain and Sanders, of different political philosophies--if they each had to write their own bill would write different bills--came together, not for their ideology's sake, not for political advantage, but for the good of these veterans. That is the highest duty we have here. The second point I would make is this: In a body that has been wracked by partisanship, I was hoping and praying that that partisanship would not stand in the way of us helping our veterans. Because of this good work of Vermont and Arizona's Senators, that has happened. That has happened. We are not home yet. We hope no one will be so selfish that they feel their own amendment or amendments have to be voted on if they are extraneous, because that could blow up the deal. We all know how fragile, even for our veterans, bipartisan agreements are in this body. This is a higher calling. I talked at length over the last several days with Senator Sanders. I know how heartfelt this is for him. As he said: If he wrote his own bill, he would have done a lot more.…”