Arun Jaitley Quotes

Woe betide a bill that is opposed! It is laid aside for further time, and that never comes.

There's a lot of good, bipartisan legislation that passes in committee and then gets bottled up. As a businessman, it surprised me.

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

There are amendments never offered, there are bills never heard, that are basically killed because of the process.

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.

As every newspaper reader, liberal activist, or parliamentary junkie knows, the overarching barrier to most of Obama's agenda is the abuse of the filibuster in the Senate. In fact, several of Obama's second term priorities are not ideas in search of a majority - they are majorities in search of an up-or-down vote.

We've never been a party to obstruct for obstruction sake.

Our Congress should stay in session all summer - camp out in D.C., and turn off the AC. Put on their stuffiest powdered wigs and sweat it out, until they give in and put their John Hancocks (and their Nancy Pelosis and their John Boehners) on at least one meaningful law that no one wants to repeal.

There are two ways of looking at the talking filibuster. My way is as a form of unanimous consent.

I mean, if you go back to 1960 on major pieces of legislation, the filibuster was used about eight percent of the time.

We've been sitting at the compromise table for a long time. We're just waiting for that cold chair to be warmed up by the Republican leadership. They still have time to do the right thing and be responsible. They just seem to be moving further and further away from it.

We shouldn't deny the right of the minority to filibuster, but we need to do a much better job of making them own it. That way, the American people could figure out who is being obstructionist and who is willing to compromise.

The Senate needs 60 votes to pass anything. They have to compromise with liberal Democrats to spend more money. Even though arguably we have control of the Senate, we really don't.

People will pay a price for putting political obstruction over progress in a time that is so critical and urgent.

My viewpoint is the Senate is dysfunctional.

We've seen filibusters of bills and nominations that ultimately passed with 90 or more votes. Why filibuster something that has that kind of support? Just to slow down the process and keep the Senate from working.

In Washington, 'delay' is too often code for 'derail.' Wink, wink.

In Washington it's much easier to stop something than make something happen.

The Republican senators are filibustering themselves out of their seats.

What has the filibuster become? The filibuster has become a tool for slowing everything down…a tool by which one senator who announces that his object is to impose gridlock on the Senate, can do so.

In the United States Senate we have to break the culture of procrastination.

The minority in the Senate has the power to prevent the majority from acting.

We have a level of obstruction and an abuse of the Senate rules that we have never had before… We have a dysfunctional Senate. Some say it’s a broken Senate.

The attitude of the Senate toward public affairs makes all serious negotiations impossible.

The filibuster is a classic form of passive aggression in politics. If you will lose the vote…, you don’t let it go up for s vote. You stifle it… It’s a way to thwart something rather than doing something you want.