Political Quotes

“since last week, the Senate--ostensibly one of the great deliberative bodies in the world--supposedly has been ``debating'' the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act. It has been a very, very silent debate because of the 700 amendments that have been filed to this bill. There have been no rollcall votes on any of them. I do understand that in the managers' amendment, some of the noncontroversial, nonsignificant amendments have been accepted and absorbed, and that is fine. We have had a vigorous debate, but nobody in the world has heard that debate because there has not been one amendment here on the floor. Knowing the way the Senate does business, I worry very much--and I hope I am wrong, and I will do my best to prevent it, but I worry very much that we are supposed to be getting out of here for the Fourth of July break tomorrow night. Right now, it is a little after 2 p.m. on Wednesday, and we are out of here on Thursday. Given the fact that we are talking about 53 percent of the discretionary budget of the U.S.A., I am just a little bit worried about how many real amendments, significant amendments, are going to be offered. Let us be clear that over the last year, we have been part of what I consider to be the biggest do-nothing Senate in the modern history of this country.…”