Political Quotes

“I rise to explain what is happening for all of my colleagues and my friends on both sides of the aisle. I have been here for 6 years as a Senator. I have always fought to make the body work, and for the people of West Virginia and for our country. I have never believed partisan gridlock is a way to accomplish our policy goals, so I haven't come to this decision easily. I have never used the procedure that I am using today, and I will use, to basically stop all UCs, a lot of good pieces of legislation, a lot of good friends who have worked diligently on this. I want to be able to work with them. My reason for doing this is that over 2 years ago we promised the retired coal miners of America--we promised them--mostly their families, and there are a lot of widows now; we promised them they would have their health care benefits that were guaranteed to them and their pensions. We have been working toward that. We knew this day would come. As of December 31, the end of this month--less than 4 weeks away--there are going to be 16,500 retired families, retired miners who are losing their health care benefits. There will be another 4,000 the first of next year. So I am using this procedure, which I do reluctantly and I never thought I would have to, because we are fighting for those people whom we promised, fighting for those we believe in, to thank them for the power they have provided to this Nation. Now we are turning our backs on them. We have pay-fors for this.…”