Political Quotes

“first let me thank my colleague from Michigan for her outstanding remarks. I too want to talk about the budget. We have agreed to a bipartisan budget framework, and that has been very good. We have avoided a shutdown, and we have avoided defaulting on our debt. I am glad the brinkmanship that some on the other side of the aisle wanted to play did not prevail. That is a very good thing. Now we have to move forward. I want to join my colleagues to ask our friends on the other side of the aisle to engage in a fair process on the omnibus that must follow. The budget, after all, is only a blueprint. Now it is up to Democrats and Republicans to fill in all the details and honor the agreements that both sides worked to pass together. Already we have some on the other side of the aisle threatening to insert policy riders that should have no business in an appropriations process, particularly a delicate one like this. So first things first--let us be crystal clear. If folks on the other side of the aisle insist on inserting poison pill riders into the omnibus bill and the Republican leadership on either the House or Senate side goes along, they will be dragging us into another government shutdown. We are happy to debate any of these so-called poison pill riders but not to use the whole budget process as a hostage.…”