Political Quotes

“I just want to make a couple of points. First, I want to thank my good friend for her work on this and her cooperation. I agree with many of the points she made, certainly about the fact that I hope this heralds a new beginning. Worth noting, we did have a budget agreement 2 years ago, and that worked pretty well for a couple of years. I am pleased to see that this follow-on agreement is here before us today. I think it will give us 2 years of stability. My friend will understand if I take mild exception with some of her remarks about being shut out of the process. Those of us who were here in the minority on the Republican side of the aisle certainly remember not being allowed to offer amendments to the Affordable Care Act, seeing the stimulus act come to the floor with no committee, and, frankly, having the long-time practice of appropriations bills coming under open rules totally suspended. But, in the spirit of cooperation today, I will leave it at that. Let's look ahead. I think my friend is exactly right when she suggests this bill not only solves some important issues that are in front of us in a bipartisan way, a give-and-take way, but creates an opening and an opportunity going forward.…”