Political Quotes

“let me first of all echo the comments of my friend, the Senator from Tennessee. We will never fully know what was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, but I do believe that under the leadership of the Senator from Alaska 16 of us came to the floor yesterday and made these comments, with Senators on the Republican side saying: Please, let's reopen the government, and Senators on the Democratic side, like myself, saying: I am open to increasing the dollar amount on border security. After the Presiding Officer's comments, I rise to welcome the news that sanity has prevailed--at least temporarily. After 35 painful days, we are finally poised to reopen the government and pay our hard-working Federal employees. It is not a moment too soon because under normal circumstances, today is supposed to be a Federal payday, but this morning, thousands of Federal employees went to work one more day knowing full well they would not be getting the paychecks they earned. Thousands more have been furloughed, waiting for the President and my colleagues to come to their senses to let us reopen the government. For the last 35 days, 800,000 Federal workers have been held hostage through no fault of their own. Frankly, that is just scratching the surface of this destructive shutdown. That number of 800,000 doesn't include the hundreds of thousands of Federal contractors who are not getting paid.…”