Political Quotes

“we are in an unpleasant time, indeed, in the Senate. I hate to see it happen. This is a robust body. We are at each other. We defend the interests of our constituents and try to advocate for the values we share, and it is a contentious place at times, but we usually work our way through that. I would just say there is no reason we should be at this point today. I do believe the majority leader has been abusing the powers of his office. I remain dreadfully concerned and firmly believe this consistent practice of using the tactics of refusing to consider certain bills and filling the tree to keep Members of the Senate from having a vote is an abuse maybe even larger than the issue we are dealing with today. In fact, it is larger. For example, we have been debating the question of interest rates going up on student loans and how to fix that. There are two different bills, two different ideas. One of those bills the majority leader supports. He has brought it up and he wants to vote on it, but he doesn't want to vote on anything else. But there are a number of Senators on this side, along with Democratic Senators who agree with them in a bipartisan way, who have come up with a better bill--I think it is better--and we want to vote on it. But, the majority leader refused to allow us to vote on that alternative. Time and time again, he prevents us from voting on legislation and from engaging in a full and open amendment process.…”