Political Quotes

“Madam President, I would like to first express my appreciation to the Senator from Ohio for his work on these education issues, particularly the importance of the Stafford loan and avoiding the interest rate jump that is scheduled to take place. And I would point out that had we passed the so-called Buffett rule bill so that Americans who earn well over $1 million a year would actually all pay a fair share of taxes, that would have created somewhere between $47 billion and $163 billion in revenues, and that would readily pay for keeping the student loan rate down. So I hope we can find another way to do it, but that would have been one good way. The reason I am on the floor this evening is because I was at Wickford Junction in Rhode Island earlier today, where a new commuter rail station has been built, largely through the energy and effort of my senior Senator, Jack Reed, over many years. Secretary LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, came to be present at that event, and that reminded me, of course, of the highway bill, which is probably the biggest jobs bill we could pass here in Congress. We tend to talk a good game on jobs. Recently, we even referred to a bill as a JOBS bill. It had kind of a trick: It was actually called Jumpstart Our Business Startups, J-O-B-S. They made an acronym so that it sounded like a jobs bill when what it really did was to allow people to market stocks without the usual safeguards that protect investors and consumers.…”