Political Quotes

“Madam President, I wish to take a couple moments to express my gratitude, and I think people across the country--if we can get this done--will express their gratitude as well. At a time when the economy is still recovering--and there is good news that the recovery is moving at a faster rate than it was 1 year ago or certainly than 6 months ago. I wish to talk about that for a moment. I express my gratitude to Senator Boxer for her leadership on this issue. All we are saying together--as she did in the mid-1990s, when this came up at the time of that shutdown--is, Members of Congress have to play by the same rules as everyone else who depends upon the Federal Government for a program or their pay; that we will play by the same rules. I commend Senator Boxer for her leadership, as she demonstrated all those years ago, when at the time it passed, but it was taken out in a conference committee. I believe, if Members of Congress are going to be deciding whether the government continues to operate or whether it shuts down, they have to play by the same set of rules. I mentioned the economy because this has a direct connection to why we are discussing this today. We have, as I said, a recovering economy. In Pennsylvania, there is data to show that. I know in California the unemployment rate has been high. It was high for a long period of time in Pennsylvania. It is still high but, in a relative sense, lower than a lot of places. We are at 8.5 percent in our State.…”