Political Quotes

“The Republican leader is correct. As I said earlier, if a drug benefit bill were brought forward that cost $10, it would be subject to a budget point of order because of this procedure. People are asking: Why is the 60-vote procedure such a problem? The Senator from Nevada asked would I object to an up-or-down vote on one of them? I can certainly agree to that. The problem is the 99 other Senators; only one of them needs to object to an up-or-down vote and make a point of order against the underlying bill because it is not reported out of the Finance Committee, and we have a problem. We have to get 60 votes. The interesting question is why are we in this situation? Obviously, because the majority leader has decided to bring a bill straight to the floor and not through committee. Why are we in this situation even stepping back from what happened yesterday? Because we do not have a budget. We have no budget. For the first time since 1974, we have no budget in the Senate. Now we are starting to see the consequences of not having a budget. The other point is we do not have any appropriations bills passed.”