Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Senate has now passed a continuing resolution to keep the lights on, to keep the government employees paid, to pay our military and make sure our veterans get the benefits they are entitled to from now until December 11. I think it is important to reflect on why it is we had to do this in this way, with all of the attendant drama and the suggestion that we were going to somehow shut down the government, which was never a likelihood. The main reason we find ourselves in this posture is because for the first time since 2009, the Senate has actually passed a budget. This new majority that was elected last November saw that one of the most important things we could do in terms of the basic fundamentals of good governance was to pass a budget--something that hadn't happened since 2009. There are many benefits, of course, of passing a budget, but one of the benefits was to allow the Appropriations Committee to begin to go to work and take up and pass 12 different appropriations bills that would keep the whole of the Federal Government funded. As the Presiding Officer knows, there is a lot of policy written in those Appropriations Committees. You can make a decision not to fund something because it is not working or maybe it is obsolete or outdated or perhaps to fund something else; say perhaps we need to reform the way this particular service is delivered and consolidate it in a way that it is cost-effective and more efficient.…”