Political Quotes

“I have to say I think we are having a problem in the Senate. I consider the majority leader a friend. I know it is a very difficult job. I have said that many times. I wouldn't want it. Trent Lott said it is like herding cats or it is like pushing a wheelbarrow with frogs; you put one in and two jump out. It is a tough job, but he asked for it. The Senate is a great institution. I don't know what Robert Byrd, the late Senator from West Virginia, would say if he were here. I think I know. I think he would be very uneasy about the process we have gone through this year when, through the power of the Chair, the majority leader has blocked legislation after legislation, has blocked us moving forward with a budget, refusing to allow the committees to move forward, and refused to allow the budget even to come up last year. We are now I think 812 days without a budget in the Senate, running the largest deficits the Nation has ever run, and those deficits are not transient. They are not going to turn around when the economy picks up a little bit. It is a systemic, deep, structural problem, and we are endangering our future. We are being blocked from even being able to discuss it while people meet in secret over at the White House with the Vice President, with the President, and a few others meet with a group of Senators. Nobody elected them, but they are good people. If they want to meet, that is fine.…”