Political Quotes

“Mr. President, later this week, we will consider a spending measure to fund the United States Government through the remaining 6 months of this fiscal year. While the majority leader is on the Senate floor, I want to thank him, as well as Appropriations Chairman Inouye and Senator Patty Murray, for their hard work in negotiating an end to the budget stalemate and preventing the threatened government shutdown. The battle over that spending measure brightly illuminated the contrast between the priorities of the two parties. The priorities of the House Republicans, I believe, are completely upside-down. In the debate over the spending bill, they fought to cut programs that helped the middle class and for extreme tea party policy riders that had nothing to do with the budget. These included a prohibition on funding for women's health and eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to protect us against carbon and other pollution. At the same time, the House Republicans refused to even consider raising revenue by closing tax loopholes, for instance--not one. They refused to entertain ending even one corporate tax giveaway or one special treatment for wealthy taxpayers. If that debate didn't make the contrast between the two parties crystal clear, the House Republican budget for 2012--the so-called Ryan budget--sure did.…”