Political Quotes

“I do thank my distinguished colleague, who about 2 months ago said, we can do this, we can do it for the American people. It was at a time where it looked as though this Senate could not come together to address one of the more fundamental issues that the taxpayer, the American consumer, sees every day; that is, the price of gas, the price of consumer products that go up because of the natural gas required to make that product. We have addressed it in a bipartisan way: Senator Domenici, Senator Landrieu, Senator Martinez, Senator Vitter--the Gulf State Senators--my distinguished colleague, the assistant majority leader, who was there every second of the way, through meeting after meeting, as we worked through the many, many details in what was really pioneering work in many ways, opening up the deep sea energy exploration, with the sharing of revenues coming in and what the appropriate amount should be. So I do thank all of them. I have to come back to Senator Domenici and him just looking them in the eye and saying: It can get done. I know elections are coming, and I know there is partisanship, people want to slow the place down, but we are going to do it. To have it done means a lot. ``The increase in energy prices is clearly making the economy worse off. . . .'' If oil prices continue to rise, there will be ``significant consequences'' for the economy.…”