Political Quotes

“I thank my friend. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's winter in Washington, but apparently our Republican friends have returned thinking it's August at the beach, and they've packed their neon-colored flip-flops. Last year, this Congress came together in a bipartisan fashion to avoid America's first-ever default. The business community, economists, financial analysts warned of the economic calamity that a default would cause. Passing this resolution today--in fact by two-thirds vote in this body and the Senate--would produce just such a catastrophic result. The Budget Control Act we passed didn't appropriate one penny of new spending; it just provided for America to meet its previous obligations. Although the initial intransigence of some brought the Nation to the brink and the first downgrading by S&P in our history, ultimately 174 Republicans finally agreed to do the right thing. Today's vote is a direct repudiation of that vote. The debt limit increase in this resolution is the exact same one they supported as part of the Budget Control Act only 5 months ago. Today's vote is simply an opportunity for Republicans to give themselves cover and to flip-flop and say they're against what they in fact already voted for. Make no mistake, Mr. Speaker: Nothing Republicans have proposed this year would have forestalled an increase in the debt ceiling, not the Ryan budget, not the Republican Study Committee budget, not even the balanced budget amendment.…”