Political Quotes

“Madam President, not too long ago, we had a vote on whether or not to start a debate on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And the majority said, yes, start the debate. Then why aren't we here in that debate? Well, the simple answer is we have a process whereby you have to have 60--a supermajority of the Senate decide to start a debate. In other words, there is ability to exercise a veto over whether or not a bill is worthy for consideration on this floor, even if it is supported by the majority of legislators. That effort is really about destroying the ability of this Senate to address the big issues facing America. What bigger issue is there in a Republic than stopping billionaires from buying elections; to stop gerrymandering from destroying equal representation; to stop State laws that create prejudicial barriers designed to target specific groups to keep them from voting; barriers at the ballot box to steal the right to vote? What bigger, more fundamental issues are there than that? Yet we can't even start a debate. In fact, we spend a lot of time debating whether to debate, and that is wasted time on the floor. So, truly, that vote we took was symbolic of two things. The first is that we are failing to address one of the biggest issues we face in this Nation: the integrity of our election system, the corruption of our election system. And, second, that this Senate has become dysfunctional.…”