Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, let us call this resolution for what it is: It is a cynical resolution to allow the Republican Congress to take a vacation; nothing more, nothing less. The Republicans shut the Government down, everybody knows it. No amount of political spin can change it. They are suffering politically for it. The Speaker tried to relieve the pressure by trying to think about a clean continuing resolution, but last night there was a rebellion in his conference amongst House freshmen Republicans. They will not have any part of it. They are on a crusade, an extreme crusade, but a crusade, so the Government is shut down. This is to relieve them of that pressure, so there is a resolution to take the political pressure off them. It is a cynical move. Everybody knows we are not coming back until the 23d. The American public will not be fooled by this. Congress should stay here and do its job. We should pass an absolutely clean continuing resolution to keep the Government open. This is the way it has always been done. The Republicans want to kill Medicare and Medicaid; the Democrats want to protect it. It should not be 'our way or no way.' Let us stay here and do our job.”