Political Quotes

“Thank you, Madam President. I thank the Senator from Alabama for his comments and leadership on the Budget Committee. To the two gentlemen, the Senator from Illinois and the Senator from South Dakota, I thank them for their work in appropriations. This discussion on the floor has absolutely nothing to do with work they have done. I understand actually the top line they are using is within the budget that was passed through the House. The reason I am here today, though, is for this reason: There aren't many Senators on either side of the aisle who believe the Senate is functioning in an appropriate manner. I can't go to the dining room or any other place, walk down the hall, get on the subway, without some Senator saying, Can you believe how this place is operating? Our allowing spending bills to come to the floor and to be voted upon without having budgets basically makes us an accomplice in allowing this place to continue to be dysfunctional. We are having a showdown over the debt ceiling because there isn't any other place to have a showdown. I realize many people have decided that is not the appropriate place, and there has been a scheme concocted to sort of allow both sides to have it as they may and try to fight this out in the electoral process down the road instead of dealing with some of the tough issues we ought to deal with now.…”