Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am going to get into the substance of my colleague's arguments in a moment, but I just want to be clear to all the people in America, the 30-plus million who are having problems making rent, having problems buying groceries, who in just 2 days--2 days--come Saturday, are going to be in a position where, based on what they tell me, they are telling their kids: Hey, you probably have to eat a little bit less because the unemployment is ending. The fact is, the other body passed a bill so that folks would be able to make rent and buy groceries. On this side of the aisle, the Democratic leader and I introduced legislation to tie the benefits to economic conditions on the ground. One of the reasons we did is my colleagues on the other side said that benefits ought to taper off if unemployment goes down. That is what our bill does. But here is the message that I think folks who are walking on an economic tightrope this weekend need to hear. On this side of the aisle, we have been ready to go for weeks--essentially, months--to have bipartisan negotiations to work this issue out. As of this afternoon, with benefits expiring in 2 days, the other side of the aisle has no piece of legislation on offer. Let me repeat that: no piece of legislation on offer. Let me repeat that--no piece of legislation on offer.…”