Political Quotes

“the real vote would have been 57 to 41. I switched my vote from ``aye'' to ``no,'' thus the reported vote is 56 to 42. I want to clarify, very briefly, where we are now. For purely procedural reasons, as leader, I switched my vote to a ``no'' vote to preserve all of my procedural options. As everyone knows, I strongly support cloture and moving to proceed to the three important issues in the Family Prosperity Act. I initially voted ``yes'' on cloture, but by switching to a ``no'' vote, I preserve my right, as leader, to revisit this issue in the future as a package. The Senate just had a majority vote to move forward to this bill which reforms the onerous death tax, raises the minimum wage for millions of Americans, and provides a number of important tax relief extenders that will expire. Had the Senate invoked cloture, I am confident we could have finished this measure this weekend and presented it to the President in the next couple of days to become the law of the land. With my switched vote, I preserve the procedural option to bring the bill back as a package. I hope the Democratic Senators will rethink long and hard over the weeks to come before we return for business in September. Mr. President, finally, just for the record, a number of comments were made just prior to the vote about the tip wage issue. As my colleagues know, I have made it clear to them that is an issue that we would be able to address once on the bill.…”