Political Quotes

“Groundhog Day isn't until Friday, but here we are again, voting for the third time in 7 months on a Defense bill that will go in the hole--nowhere. We are 9 days out from the threat of another shutdown and 4 months into the fiscal year of 2018, which started last October 1, yet we still have no budget framework from our Republican friends and their so-called leadership, nothing to direct appropriators on what numbers from which to negotiate funding for the entirety of the government--not just Defense, not just this account. Instead, Republican leadership wastes important, precious time to debate a bill that has already passed this Chamber twice before. Meanwhile, our Republican colleagues force the entire government to run on autopilot for over a third of the fiscal year and trumpet their claim that only they prioritize the military. How can anyone take this seriously? Republicans have provided no overall roadmap of a funding strategy for the Federal Government. They failed to agree within their own caucus on funding priorities, leaving them incapable to even begin to negotiate with Democrats. As a result, law dictates a defense funding level of $549 billion. That is a lot of money. Half a trillion. But here we are debating, for the third time, an astounding $659 billion for defense. That is $110 billion more. Hmm.…”