Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the current debate over the Federal budget. Yesterday, we had a very telling and troubling vote in the House of Representatives. On the 3-week continuing resolution needed to avoid a government shutdown on March 18, Speaker Boehner was forced to rely on votes from House Democrats in order to pass a measure he himself had negotiated. The reason was that conservative Republicans abandoned their party leadership in droves out of anger that the measure lacks special interest add-ons dealing with ideological issues, such as abortion, global warming, and net neutrality. In all, 54 conservative Republicans rejected the measure, even though it was necessary to avert a shutdown and even though it included $6 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary spending. This is a bad omen. This was not supposed to happen. Last week, the Senate held two test votes--one on H.R. 1 and one on a Democratic alternative. We knew that neither one would have the votes to pass, but we held the votes anyway. And, sure enough, they 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, 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. 1 failed in the Senate that it would convince his conservatives of the need to compromise.…”