Political Quotes

“I just listened with great eagerness to the discussion between the majority leader and the Republican leader, and I would like to make two points here and then several subsidiary points. We need to do two things before we leave: We need to fund the government in a reasonable and rational way, and we need to help the middle class get tax relief because the middle class is suffering. We need to do both. As Leader Reid said, to do both, you need both Democrats and Republicans to agree. If you try to do one without the other, you will not get anything done. So last night Speaker Boehner sent a bill on middle-class tax relief that was such a Christmas tree that we knew it could not pass. And he knew it could not pass. We know why he did it. He did it because he could not get enough Republican votes in his caucus without all of these killer amendments to get it through. He could not get it through without those amendments. So the Republican leader says: Well, if we know it cannot pass, why don't we start negotiating? There is one point here. We do not have to convince Speaker Boehner to start negotiating. He knows that. But we have to convince the hundred votes in his caucus who do not believe we should give middle-class tax relief, who are wedded to these amendments that will kill the bill here in the Senate because they are so unpalatable. It is not 1 or 2 amendments; it is 10 or 12 or 15 amendments. We need to show those hundred that this bill cannot pass.…”