Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentlelady's courtesy. Mr. Speaker, one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talked about our being the ``greatest Nation in the world,'' but Republicans are running it like a banana republic. People who ran out of this Chamber gleeful that the government was going to shut down have suddenly discovered that there is 20 percent of the government that they want to operate. There is a simple way to resolve this impasse. If you want to negotiate truly, appoint the conferees to the Budget Committee. The Republicans have refused to do that for 6 months. If you want to control spending, bring your own appropriations bills to the floor and see if your people have the fortitude to slash government spending further. Remember, they stopped operation on the Transportation-HUD bill 2 months ago. It can be brought up today. But they refuse to do so because their spending levels are so unrealistic their own Members won't vote for them. They would rather deal in the abstract. They would rather hold America hostage. It is shameful. It is unnecessary. Bring a continuing resolution to the floor and put the government back to work. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.”