Political Quotes

“We are on the brink of a shutdown, a brink of sending this Nation over the cliff. Tonight, I speak to the American people and to my colleagues. We have a very simple task--a task of mercy and grace, a task of adulthood and recognition of our responsibility to keep this government open. I'd like to shun the party of Marie Antoinette and let them eat cake, or those who would say let's work and play while Rome is burning, or maybe even the former Republican Presidential candidate Bachmann, who says: We're smiling; we got just what we want, a shutdown of the government. I would like to shun that kind of attitude and ask my colleagues to join together in a simple task--to support the clean continuing resolution that would fund this government as we are obligated to do under the Constitution. We have the purse strings in the House, to make sure that the government works, to make sure that our women and children are served and our veterans are served, to make sure that our parks are open. So all we have to do is a simple task--to stop going over the top and be able to respond as Americans.”