Political Quotes

“Let me join with my colleague and say I fully understand the point he was making. Indeed, perhaps less eloquently, I tried to make the same point. But it is not just in the Nation's Capital. It is not just in our Commonwealth of Virginia. I think people would expect it of us, representing a disproportionate number of those who are directly affected, but it is all over this country and indeed all over the world in terms of Federal employees and people who depend on the Federal Government. Many of those small businesses, people who depend on the national parks and other facilities for their living, when those parks are shut down, when those visitor attractions are shut down all over this country, small business men and women who make their living being accessible to those who come to those institutions are going through the same kind of a shutdown. They do not have any guarantee. Indeed, they are not going to be paid back whatever they lose after the shutdown is over. That is why this makes so little sense. If everybody who has been laid off or furloughed in this process is going to be ultimately made whole, it is an enormous waste of taxpayer dollars. But those individuals after the inconvenience and the trauma, in many cases, of not being able to pay their bills on time, are going to be made whole. Many others, who are directly related to those, are not going to be made whole. The impact is a little bit like a cancer. It is corrosive and it continues.…”