Political Quotes

“Madam President, in reserving the right to object, let me start out by saying that I agree with virtually everything my colleagues from both Massachusetts and Texas have said about celebrating the emancipation of the slaves. That was an important moment in U.S. history. It should be observed, and it should be celebrated. I have no disagreement whatsoever with that at all. The one area of disagreement is how the bill's sponsors have chosen to celebrate that holiday. As the Senator from Massachusetts pointed out, since 1865, it has been observed with celebrations and cookouts, which is the appropriate way of doing this. I object to the fact that, by naming it a national holiday--and what they are leaving out of their argument and its main impact--it will give Federal workers a paid day off that the rest of America will have to pay for. When I asked for a CBO score, the sponsors of the bill had not even obtained a score, and I still don't think they have obtained a score. The estimate, in terms of what it will cost American taxpayers in the private sector to pay for a paid holiday for Federal workers, is about $600 million per year. The CBO score would come in at $6 billion over 10. In terms of why I object, let me just put a couple of facts to that $600 million bill that hard-working taxpayers would have to foot in an era when we are $26.5 trillion in debt and when 17 million of our fellow Americans are currently unemployed.…”