Political Quotes

“Mr. President, my colleague from Oklahoma was addressing the frustration that exists on the part of the American public with this Chamber for not doing its job. I must say, on that point, we are in complete agreement. I hear in every townhall, in every conversation with constituents, the question of why is it that when what we need most in this Nation are jobs, this Chamber, the Senate, is unable to hold a debate over a jobs bill? Just last week we had a debate not over a jobs bill but whether to proceed to the jobs bill. Unfortunately, it was defeated, not because the majority did not want to get to the bill but because the minority opposed it and invoked a 60-vote hurdle, a hurdle that was never routinely used in this Chamber in the past. The fear of debating a jobs bill in this Chamber by my colleagues is irrational. The American people want us to wrestle with creating jobs. Have people not gone out and talked to their constituents? Do they not know the unemployment rate in this Nation? Do they not hear from fathers and mothers who are worried about keeping shelter over their family or worried about their mortgage, their rent, their utilities? I do not understand how anyone could say: Let's not have a debate about jobs on the floor of the Senate. Yet it was a unanimous ``no'' vote from across the aisle when we proposed having the debate over the jobs bill.…”