Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I too thank the chairman and ranking member of the committee and Senator Carper for bringing something to the floor that is bipartisan. I applaud that and the fact that the committee process is working. But the fact is we did set a top line number when the country almost shut down last August 2. On one of the very first pieces of legislation we passed, the highway bill, we violated that budget cap. It wasn't by much, but we violated it. Now we have a bill that violates it by $11 billion. What I say is that if the Postal Service is that important to this Nation, if it has bipartisan support, should we not figure out a way to deal with the Postal Service in such a way to stay within the budget constraints we have laid out? It seems to me things that are very popular in this Nation are the very things we ought to make choices about and eliminate something else if we want to spend money in this way. I would like to see a bill that is far more reformed, and I think if we did that, the tab on this would not be $11 billion above the budget. What I say to everybody here is, please, our credibility is going out the window. Sixty-four of us signed a letter to the leader and to the President asking that we deal in a real way with deficit reduction. The country almost shut down. The world watched. We established a top line number, and here we are, for something we like, violating that. We are losing all credibility with our citizens--the citizens we represent.…”