Political Quotes

“Madam President, let me say to the Senator from Alaska and the Senator from North Dakota, congratulations, and tell them how much I admire and appreciate their tenacity. The 114th Congress had a lot to prove. Mainly what we had to prove is we weren't like the 113th Congress that was completely dysfunctional, particularly the Senate. I have to say to our good friend, the Presiding Officer, it wasn't the House. It was the Senate that was dysfunctional. The House passed a lot of legislation that came to die in the Senate because the then- majority leader made the decision he wasn't going to move it. It is a new day in the Senate. While I am sure the bill managers would tell us it wasn't easy, we actually have an accomplishment thanks to the leadership of the Senator from Alaska and the Senator from North Dakota, and thanks to an awful lot of people. That is progress. I hope the first efforts we have made by being able to pass legislation--hopefully the House will concur, the Senate, and the President--we will have done our job. What the President decides to do is about him doing his job, but we can't fail to do our jobs just because he refuses to do his job. In fact, when he has announced for seven different pieces of legislation he is going to veto them, the easiest thing for us to do would be to curl up in a fetal position and say we give up, we are not even going try. We haven't done that. Again, I think this is a great accomplishment.…”