Political Quotes

“I rise tonight to speak about the shutdown. I know the hour is late. I will cut short my remarks. But we are now, as you heard and as many Americans know, in day 24 of the shutdown. This is a shutdown that the President, a number of weeks ago, said that he--I am not quoting him exactly, but he seemed to want to have a shutdown, and then he went forward and executed it even after this body, the Senate, voted unanimously just before Christmas to extend funding for the government until February so we could continue debates until then. But he chose to upend that and now we have this shutdown lasting not just 24 days but now the longest in American history. That is not a distinction any President or administration or Congress--especially the majority here in the Senate--should be proud of. I think it is very clear that there is a way out of this, and the way out of this would not foreclose--in fact, it would enhance--the chances that we can have a fulsome, thorough, policy-oriented debate on border security, which we should have. We should actually enlarge that to speak to or debate a lot of major immigration issues and maybe come up with a bipartisan bill like we had in 2013, where 68 votes brought forward a bill out of the Senate that had probably the best border security provisions in recent American history. It had a pathway to citizenship. It was a long and arduous path but a pathway, nonetheless.…”