Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am voting for the Coburn motion to suspend the rules to allow the Senate to consider his amendment to offset extension of unemployment benefits because we must be able to discuss ways to start bringing down the deficit. Senator Coburn's amendment provides a fiscally responsible way to extend unemployment insurance for out-of-work Americans and to pay for other costs contained in the tax bill. With the underlying agreement in the tax bill to extend current tax rates for 2 years, individuals and businesses will have more certainty on tax policy. This is needed to spur economic growth and job creation. Senator Coburn's amendment takes the next important step to begin reducing spending to deal with the deficit. The Senate deserves an opportunity to debate and vote on the Coburn amendment so that we can begin this process. I spoke with Senator Coburn about an item in his amendment that would rescind NASA funding for Constellation systems. I strongly oppose this provision, which would significantly disrupt the authorization law we passed in September. NASA is expressly continuing some elements of the Constellation program such as the crew exploration vehicle in order to shorten the time for building the new launch vehicle that will propel human space exploration beyond Earth orbit.…”