Political Quotes

“We are in, as has been said by Leader Reid and my good friend from New Jersey, an unfortunate moment. There are millions of people who are innocent. They wake up in the morning, work hard, and hope to get a paycheck to help feed and clothe their families. They will not be getting a paycheck tomorrow morning. They might be Federal Government workers. I have heard some of my colleagues on the other side demonize the Federal Government. When I think of the Federal Government, I think of individual people who are working hard, who show up at work in the rain and the snow, who work hard, as do people in the private sector, people who work for State governments or such as the people who work for us. Why should they be punished? Then there are so many others, such as the veteran who needs a change in his or her disability formula and can't get it; the construction worker who is working on a federally funded highway, or somebody who works in a defense plant, as a civilian, all of these people now have been put at real risk. There is an answer, as I mentioned in my colloquy with the leader. The answer is for the House to pass the bill that passed here--the key vote had a majority of Democrats and Republicans, 25 Republicans--and keep the government running. They are busy working late at night on another little subterfuge, a little scheme. Have a conference. As the leader said, conferences are fine with us. We tried to do a budget conference 18 times.…”