Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we are here just hours before a looming deadline that is going to affect just about every American in some way, and I do believe both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Rotunda want to come to a conclusion that will keep us from having what looks like a complete meltdown of governing in Washington. Someone asked the question in one of our conferences: When was the last time Congress was in session and voting between Christmas and New Year's? The answer was, since 1970 there has not been such a session. And it has actually happened only four times in the history of our country, and two of those times were dealing with World War II. So I think the enormity of the issue is very clear, and that is why we are here. I think we should have done this 6 months ago, a year ago. I think all of us agree we should not be here at this last hour still trying to negotiate a point at which so many Americans are going to be more heavily taxed. I was pleased to see that the distinguished deputy leader on the Democratic side talked about the three areas we have to address, and deficit reduction is most certainly one of them because we are facing a ceiling of a $16.4 trillion debt that is getting ready to be exceeded. So, yes, deficit reduction and entitlement reform are two areas we must address. This country cannot continue to have Social Security and Medicare spiraling toward insolvency. We cannot do it. But it is going to take a bipartisan approach.…”