Legislative Gridlock Quotes

I've got a pen, and I've got a phone, and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive action. I've got a pen to talk executive actions where congress won't. Where congress isn't acting, I'll act on my own. I have got a pen and I got a phone. And that is all I need.

As the nation's attention turns from Washington politics to the Obamacare disaster, Democrats will have no choice but to reconsider our fair and reasonable proposals to delay the law.

We can't have the government of the United States shut down when a group doesn't like something. This is almost an act of insurrection.

Our system of checks and balances makes it simpler to stop bills than enact them.

Congress has been reformed so much that it can't get anything done.

Obama seemed poised to realign American politics after his stunning 2008 victory. But the economy remains worse than even the administration's worst-case scenarios, and the long legislative battles over health care reform, financial services reform and the national debt and deficit have taken their toll. Obama no longer looks invincible.

It is with deep regret that the determination to assemble Parliament has been so long delayed.

Filibuster is nothing less than a formula for tyranny by the minority

September 11 was just an excuse to expand the Patriot Act. Legislation which had been proposed for years just got stuck in.

Let the filibuster be no more. Let the people decide.

We saw what happened in Jimmy Carter's administration. President Carter was a good man with the best of intentions. But he came to Washington without a good working relationship with Democratic members of Congress, which played a big part in his administration's problems.

I think what Americans need and what Mainers need more than anything is government that functions and I think that the filibuster prevents us from functioning and making progress on issues.

There's no question that Kennedy was an utter failure as a passer of laws during his proverbial thousand days.

This has not been a legislative process worthy of the Senate. Members of the Judiciary Committee, as I just said, were implored to save their amendments for the floor. Then, when we got here, we were told no amendments could be accepted.

President Barack Obama's administration sometimes finds itself at odds with members of Congress who oppose nearly everything the United Nations does on principle.

The Senate has unlimited debate; in the House, debate is ruthlessly circumscribed. There is frequent discussion as to which technique most effectively frustrates democratic process.

The founders designed a government in which it was easier to do nothing than it was to do a great deal all at once.

In most countries, a lopsided election represents a mandate that the winning party could then use to implement their agenda, but the U.S. political system seems to have been made to prevent such an occurrence.

The American people are sick and tired of Washington and the people who have been in charge have been passing all these bills and I've been voting no all of the time and vote no on these appropriation bills.

If you're not comfortable with delay, frustration and impatience, get out of the Senate. It's the nature of the institution, but I think we've taken it to an art form.

Many good people serve in Congress. They are patriotic, hard-working, and devoted to the public good as they see it, but the institutional and cultural impediments to change frustrate the intentions of these well-meaning people as rarely before.

I have, year after year, been named the most bipartisan member of the whole United States Senate. I have proved my independence.

The middle in Congress is gone now. That is where we got most things done.

Opposition, n. In politics the party that prevents the Government from running amok by hamstringing it.

You can see how dysfunctional this Congress is.