Political Quotes

“I will say to my colleague, I appreciate his eloquence and his advocacy. He gave us a real partisan speech this morning. I will just ask a few things of one of our leaders in the Senate, Mr. Durbin. What about the responsibility of this body to pass a budget? We have not had one in over 1,200 days. What about the responsibility of this body to move appropriations bills? Not one single appropriations bill has been advanced. And while we are working on legislation that could help veterans find jobs--it will cost about $200 million a year--why has this body not brought up the defense appropriations bill that funds the Defense Department at over $500 billion? We have not even brought it up for a vote, even though the House has passed one. Why have we not brought up the defense authorization bill that passed the Armed Services Committee unanimously? I am a member of it. It has been sitting here for months and not been brought up. Why? Because we would have a debate, actually have some votes around here? So that is a problem I think we have in this Senate, and I believe it is a serious matter. I was going to make some comments about the bill before us. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.”