Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I would like to point out to everyone that we had hours and hours of debate, with over 100 amendments offered, and no one offered an amendment on the debt ceiling limit. As part of the agreement in order to go to conference, we have offered to have a vote now on whether we should have motions to instruct. I would be willing, as chair, to abide by that vote once our unanimous consent is agreed to. But I have to say, as a matter of principle, for a chair of any committee to say, once we have gone through hundreds of hours of debate and a lot of amendments, that then, before we go to conference, we have to agree to a principle that has not been voted on or offered in the Senate as part of that is not how we can proceed in this body. It would be the same as if I would come out and say: I am not going to allow us to go to conference on whatever bill because I have a small provision, and unless you absolutely agree it has to be in there, even though I don't have the votes, we are not going to conference. We would never get anything done. The unanimous consent request I have offered allows my Republican friends to have a vote on this, even though they didn't ask for a vote in all those hours of debate and hundreds of hours we spent on this issue, before we move to conference. The principle is this: Our Republican colleagues wish to have an open debate, they say, but we are not having an open debate because of their insistence we don't go to conference.…”