Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I know we are going to be voting on the budget that was negotiated by Senator Murray and Paul Ryan. Sixty-seven Senators voted for cloture on that, so we will have a vote on passage this afternoon, I think about 4:30. But I wanted to raise an issue that has been raised previously-- yesterday; that is, the process by which the Senate is operating where no amendments are being allowed either on the budget or on the Defense authorization bill, which is the next bill we will turn to by the decision of the majority leader. I have congratulated Senator Murray and I congratulate Congressman Ryan for their negotiation. But I do think there is an error that has been identified that needs to be corrected in the bill and which could easily be corrected if the majority leader would reconsider his decision not to allow any amendments. This specifically has to do with the discriminatory way in which Active-Duty military pensions are being penalized in a unique way that not even Federal workers who are going to be treated differently prospectively, not even civilian Federal workers, are being treated in the same way our Active-Duty military are. Several of my colleagues came to the floor yesterday--the Senator from New Hampshire, the Senator from South Carolina and others--and pointed out the discriminatory treatment which could easily be fixed.…”