Political Quotes

“I thank the Speaker for the recognition. Well, here we are, Tuesday night, Washington, D.C., 20 minutes until eight o'clock in the evening. What a day we have had here in the Capitol. Mr. Speaker, many of your constituents and my constituents probably tried to call our offices today to register how they felt about this health care bill. I know I have been encouraging people, whether they agree with me or not, whether they think I'm spot on or all wet, I have been encouraging people to call and let Congress know what you think about this massive government takeover of one-seventh of our Nation's economy. And people have responded. They have been calling. But today they were met with either busy signals or interminable rings, because apparently the House switchboard was overwhelmed with the calls that were coming in. I will tell you I was concerned because I called my number for my office and got a busy signal, and yet walking around in the office, certainly not all of the phones were in use. So apparently this problem that Americans have encountered all afternoon has been one that has at its root and its cause in the antiquated House switchboard. I do hope the Speaker, I hope the Architect of the Capitol, and the Capitol business manager, will take that into account, because clearly, clearly we need to be able to hear from our constituents when we have such important legislation coming up to the floor. So where are we as we work through this? Are we in the last throes?…”