Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about some missed opportunities. Last week, I talked a little bit about how I thought the President had missed the opportunity with his deficit commission, he had missed the opportunity with his State of the Union speech, and he had missed the opportunity with his budget. Well, almost 2 weeks ago, President Obama scolded Congress for not making enough progress on debt ceiling and budget negotiations. He said we needed to stay in Washington last week and get things done. I took him at his word. I thought the administration and the majority were serious about staying in Washington to push forward and get some results. We were all in Washington last week, but we did not get anything done. The debt and the deficit and the lack of a budget are not the only issues facing America. When are we going to have real issues processed through committees that provide real solutions? Despite reports suggesting that Democrats have reached an agreement on a budget deal among themselves, the majority did not present us with that budget. Despite the President's comments that Congress needed to be in session to reach an agreement, he refused to meet with our caucus. We have gone more than 800 days without passing any sort of budget in the Senate. When we stayed in Washington last week to work on a budget deal, Democrats refused to bring up that budget for a vote. Last week, we had an opportunity to make headway on the debt ceiling issue.…”