Political Quotes

“I wish to take a few minutes to talk about the latest attempt by the Republicans in the House of Representatives--and a few Republicans in the Senate as well--to hold hostage the basic operation of our government, once again, over politics. While I have several issues with the Department of Homeland Security funding bill that the House has sent to us, I will first discuss this strategy we are seeing from Republicans, as the former chair of the Budget Committee and as someone who has worked across the aisle to break through gridlock in Congress. Two years ago our country was moving constantly from one manufactured crisis to the next. We had debt limit scares that were rattling our businesses and the markets, we were headed toward an absurd and unnecessary government shutdown, and people across the country were losing faith that their elected officials could get anything done when it came to the budget and to our economy. But by working together, Congressman Paul Ryan and I were able to reach a budget deal that prevented another government shutdown and showed the American people that Congress could work together to get things done. Because of that deal we were able to then pass bipartisan spending bills for the past 2 fiscal years, including 11 of the 12 appropriations bills from last year. Although we have a lot of work to do, it is clear that stability in the Federal budget makes a difference for our economy.…”