Political Quotes

“I want to provide everyone with an update about the status of negotiations on the third phase of coronavirus legislation. Early this morning, Leader McConnell presented to us a highly partisan bill written exclusively by Republicans, and he said he would call a vote to proceed to it today. So who is being partisan? He knows darn well that for this bill to pass, it needs both Democrat and Republican support. Furthermore, when Speaker Pelosi and I said let's have a four-corners negotiation, it was Leader McConnell who resisted. So whatever we do here in the Senate, the House is doing its own bill. It made no sense then, and it makes no sense now. I said to the leader then that would slow things down. So that is where we are. Most important is the legislation itself. The legislation has many problems. At the top of the list, it includes a large corporate bailout with no protections for workers and virtually no oversight. Also, very troubling in the bill are significant shortfalls of money that our hospitals, States, cities, and medical workers desperately needed. This is a public health crisis. It is inexplicable to skimp on funding to address the pandemic. I told both Leader McConnell and Secretary Mnuchin that our caucus could not support such a partisan bill and urged Leader McConnell to delay the 3 p.m. vote so we might come to a bipartisan agreement. I am glad he agreed, because we Democrats want to move forward with a bipartisan agreement.…”