Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this is an effort on our part to open the Government back up to show the President and the American people that we are doing everything possible to negotiate in good faith, while moving forward on our commitment to finally balance the Federal budget. It is always easier to criticize a proposal, to complain without offering a positive solution. We, on the other hand, have worked very hard over the last 2 days in fashioning this positive solution to get the Government back to work and to balance our budget. That is what my goal has been as I have worked to find a solution; that is what we are going to do here today. Now it is time for the President to fulfill his responsibility. Mr. Speaker, all that we ask is that President Clinton meet himself halfway. He signed into law back in November an agreement that by the end of the first session of the 104th Congress, 2 days ago, we would have a balanced budget using CBO scoring. All we ask of him today is that he put down his marker, that he tell us where his balanced budget with CBO scoring is. Let us see what his priorities are. We cannot settle this until we have the ability to compromise. You cannot compromise when the other side does not have a position to compromise with. So we are asking him to put it on the table and then we can work this out and work out the priorities.”