Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I know there are others who are waiting to speak, and I will yield to them momentarily, but I think it is important that the majority leader explain the entire story of where we find ourselves here today on the verge of a shutdown. The truth is, the Senate has not passed a single appropriations bill that passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee by bipartisan support. Some of them were passed unanimously. The first bill, I believe, that passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee passed out some 80 days ago. Now, it may have taken until the end of July before we could get a House bill to then amend, which is a necessary procedural prerequisite, but the fact of the matter is, the majority leader, who is the only person who can schedule a vote on any of these pieces of legislation, has failed to bring any of these bills to the floor and successfully passed in the U.S. Senate. So 18 days before the end of the fiscal year, which is the shutdown unless we pass another funding bill, the majority leader puts a so- called minibus, or a combination of three appropriations bills, on the floor. That was the first time the majority leader decided to actually schedule a vote on anything. My point is that the majority leader likes to blame the House--and particularly because it is a majority of Republicans--so he acts like this is all their fault. Everything is just hunky-dory and bipartisan in the Senate. That is false.…”