Marsha Blackburn: “it has been so interesting today to hear my colleagues talk about the things we have done this year, the things we have…”

“it has been so interesting today to hear my colleagues talk about the things we have done this year, the things we have to get done before the end of the year that haven't been addressed yet, and then things that need to be addressed this next year in 2020. I will tell you, 2019, for me, I look at it as, I would say, successes and stalls and then some forward motion on some really important pieces of legislation. To get there, we really have had some fairly intense debates, which have prompted our constituents and those back in Tennessee to have their own discussions about what they think is or is not happening here in Washington, DC. My hope is that their debates around the kitchen table are sometimes less heated than ours, and certainly I hope that their Thanksgiving table debates were less heated than some of these that you see taking place here. Tennesseans, like a lot of Americans, when they end up talking about what we are or are not doing here in Congress, they revert back to first principles. I cannot tell you the number of times over this past holiday that I heard people say: Look, for me, it is all about freedom. It is all about defending the freedoms that we have--protecting that life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. They are looking at that. It is fair to say they think in the long term.…”