Political Quotes

“This is not a time that the American people are demanding more tax breaks and loopholes in our Tax Code. They are demanding equity. They would like for us to move forward. The President of the United States came here to this very body last week. He was conciliatory. He asked for a bipartisan effort. He recognized that neither party has a monopoly on wisdom, and asked us to work together to solve the problems of this country. But the first thing he indicated was in doing that, let us not have any more of these silly crybaby shutdowns of the Government. Let us not threaten the full faith and credit of this country. And the reaction, as the gentleman from Hawaii has pointed out, of the Speaker of the House is nothing short of bizarre. At a time when the President comes and says, 'Let us work together,' and everyone smiles and claps and says, 'Yes, let us do it,' and the President says 'Yes, I will agree to a 7-year balanced budget; we will even let your people calculate the numbers, using your numbers to get the 7 years,' and as soon as he does that they begin to back away from the whole notion of a balanced budget and saying, 'We want not a balanced budget; what we have in mind, instead of bringing the deficit down, is to have a downpayment.'”