
Organization
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What does it say about the legislative process when a party-line megabill needs last-minute deals and nuclear options to pass—does the outcome justify the means?
Which of this week's Senate stories—shutdown deal, McConnell's health, or the voter ID filibuster fight—will matter most a year from now, and why?
What do these stories suggest about the balance of power right now—between Trump's influence, Senate GOP leadership, and holdouts within the party?
“The House is composed of very good men, not shining, but honest and reasonably well-informed, and in time they will be found to improve, and not to be much inferior in eloquence, science, and dignity, to the British Commons. They are patriotic enough, and I believe there are more stupid (as well as more shining) people in the latter, in proportion.”
“I am now here in Congress... I am at liberty to vote as my conscience and judgment dictates to be right, without the yoke of any party on me, or the driver at my heels, with his whip in hand, commanding me to ge-wo-haw, just at his pleasure. Look at my arms, you will find no party hand-cuff on them!”
“Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens. And when he sits down, everybody disagrees.”
“The rest of the people know the condition of the country, for they live in it, but Congress has no idea what is going on in America, so the President has to tell 'em.”
“We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty.”
“One of the countless drawbacks of being in Congress is that I am compelled to receive impertinent letters from a jackass like you in which you say I promised to have the Sierra Madre mountains reforested and I have been in Congress two months and haven't done it. Will you please take two running jumps and go to hell.”
Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, and the U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the Constitution to make and pass or defeat federal legislation.