Political Quotes

“During the first dreadful year of the Republican takeover of this Congress, zealots right here in this House insisted on shutting down the government of the United States of America, causing considerable disruption and attracting a rather considerable and well-justified indignation and public outrage on the part of the American people. I believe that America needs to know that this same brand of zealotry has again shut down a large part of our American government. During the month of January, the Congress of the United States did not approve one single bill. This Congress indeed failed to even consider or debate here in the House a single piece of legislation; not improvements on the quality of public education, not a consumer bill of rights to help those who have been mismanaged by managed care in this country, not reform of our campaign finance system that is at the heart of so much wrong in what happens in this Congress. Not anything was done in this Congress. Indeed, the leadership of this House has announced within the last few days that it plans to put campaign finance reform on the back burner, the same method that was used to strangle reform in 1998 and the years before under Republican control of this Congress. While most Americans are out there working at least an 8-hour day, this House of Representatives worked on this floor during the month of January an 8-hour month.”