Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I thank my friend, the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, for their good work. I understand we have a difference of opinion, and I do deeply respect my friend from Texas and his substantive and thoughtful contributions to our foreign policy debate in our committee, but I must disagree with the argument that we ought to be focused on only one thing right now. As grave as the coronavirus crisis is--and I would be happy to talk about that and the missteps of this administration in making it worse-- Congress is the people's body. We are here defending the legislative branch of government and its constitutional role on matters of war and peace. What could be more serious? The fact that we are here the third time doesn't make it any less grave or serious. It underlines the importance of the issue and the fact that many of us in this body are going to continue to be here on the floor until Congress reasserts the role the chairman outlined for us that is the constitutional role. We have allowed way too much power to gravitate to the executive branch. We have abrogated our responsibilities here in Congress for decades. We like having it both ways. We tsk-tsk when the executive branch, we think, crosses the line, but we don't want to take responsibility for it.…”