Political Quotes

“first of all, let me express my appreciation for not just since this last Monday--a week ago today-- when we met and put together a negotiated settlement, a negotiated bill, but all year long, in the previous year, Senator Levin has been very good to work with. We did our best to get a bill. We passed our bill out of committee months ago--months ago--and the problem has been here. I am critical of the leadership of the Senate and a lot of the people who wanted amendments. I have to say this: On the Republican side, we agreed, finally, to cut it down to 25 amendments, which I think is very reasonable, and we were denied that. I could be critical. It does not do any good to be critical of the majority right now because we are where we are now. The chairman has stated that looking at December we only have between now and Friday at 11 o'clock. That is it; the House is gone. They have already made that decision. They have made the announcement. It is going to happen. So mechanically, if we are all going to embrace and love each other and not disagree with anything, it still could not be done. There is no way in the world we can have a defense authorization bill this year except to do the negotiated bill we got together on. By the way, when people say they want to wait until January, keep in mind that on December 31 the services will no longer be authorized to pay hazardous pay to the troops serving in hostile-fire areas.…”