Political Quotes

“Madam President, just very briefly, my sense is that, after we are done voting on the piece of legislation that is in front of us, we will have, I would say to my friend from North Carolina, a crucial period where we can come together and start looking at ways to find common ground and get this passed. The reality is it has been weeks now since the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and I brought forward our proposal--the one that got 357 votes. I have been saying to folks on the Republican side of the aisle: My door is open. Tell me what you want in terms of a couple of these provisions I have heard mentioned, but we haven't heard anything. So I want, as chairman of the Finance Committee, to again extend an olive branch to say: The door is open. Have you got ideas on pay-fors that both sides can go along with that we can get passed in the other body? Have you got issues--I mean, we have had a discussion about the work requirement, for example, and I have looked at all of these experts and this fellow from the tax organization, Grover Norquist, who is certainly one of the more conservative people in this town, who says this doesn't discourage work. But he doesn't have an election certificate, and Republicans do. So we are going to all sit down and work this through, but we have to get it done quickly because people are filing their returns now. We want those small businesses and we want those families to get a fair shake.…”