Political Quotes

“Well, again, in answering the leader, first, the rules of the Senate would allow any single Senator--and we have a whole handful--to delay things day after day after day after day. Second, there are things out of any Senator's control. For instance, any proposal on an issue such as this would have to be scored by the CBO. We learned on the health care legislation that CBO cannot just sort of push legislation into a machine and an hour later say: Here is your score. It takes days and sometimes weeks. And the fact that just about every procedural motion can be filibustered and delayed means we are getting so close to the deadline that we would be in serious trouble. Again, I repeat, I find it terribly disconcerting. It is hard to see anything but callousness toward the danger our Nation faces if we were to default by the House not being here this weekend because even a rudimentary knowledge of the House procedures--which I know the leadership of the House has--would indicate to them that if they do not get us something very, very soon and, in fact, they do not sit and negotiate and compromise--which they have refused to do, driven by a hundred, perhaps, Congressmen, many of them new here, who sort of say: We do not care if we default--the consequences of default would be enormous and staggering and would not just go away in a month or two but would be with us for a decade.…”