"In 1996, Republicans used reconciliation to pass major legislation that ended six decades of welfare policy."

"Senate Republicans have engaged in a record number of filibusters and other obstructionist tactics."

"If we completely repealed the estate tax, it would provide an estimated $32 billion tax break for the Walton family - the founders of Wal-Mart."

"While commentators on Fox and right-wing radio have the backing of Rupert Murdoch, a major Republican contributor, and other conservative corporations, progressives understand that their position is extremely vulnerable."

"If there is a silver lining in the action of MSNBC against Keith Olbermann, it is that people will now pay more attention to the political role of corporate media in America."

"Comcast rents modems directly to consumers, thereby competing directly with companies like Zoom. It has every reason to make Zoom modems more expensive or even to drive companies like Zoom out of business."

"Citizens in a democracy need diverse sources of news and information."

"Each and every year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion a year in tax revenues due to offshore tax abuses by the wealthy and large corporations."

"Ford's federal income tax rate was just 2.3 percent in 2009 even though it made $3 billion in profits."

"Before Congress cuts funding for Head Start, Social Security, and financial aid for college, we have got to make sure that large, profitable corporations are paying their fair share of taxes."

"The deficit crisis is real and must be addressed. But it cannot be solved on the backs of the weak and vulnerable."

"Legislation must be passed which undoes the damage caused by excessive de-regulation. That means reinstalling the regulatory firewalls that were ripped down in 1999."

"There must be a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages."

"People don't trust private health insurance companies for all the right reasons."

"As a result of the digital age and the decline of first-class mail, there is no question that the Postal Service must change and develop a new business model."

"Let's be honest, dental care in America is extremely expensive, period."

"I'm not much into speculation."

"You know, let me be very clear. I supported Barack Obama originally."

"What the American people want to see in their president is somebody who not necessarily can win every fight, but they want to see him stand up and fight for what he believes, take his case to the American people."

"You want to know the way to raise money? Put a transaction fee on Wall Street, so maybe we can curb some of the speculation and raise some money."

"Of course the Republicans have long wanted to privatize Social Security and destroy it. But Social Security has been the most important and valuable social program in the history of the United States."

"I thought the Bush economic policy was a disaster. We lost 500,000 private sector jobs during his tenure."

"There is nobody that I know who believes that Bank of America is a human being who should be entitled for the same constitutional rights that the people of our country are."

"I think the American people in many cases want to transform our energy system."

"I am sure that there are some single payer advocates who think the only thing worth fighting for is single payer."

"I don't consider myself a pariah."

"I'm not a Democrat, I'm an Independent, but I caucus with the Democrats."

"I come from a rural state. People drive 50, 100 miles to and from work every single day. That is true all over America."

"The bottom line is that when Senator Inhofe says, 'Global warming is a hoax,' he is just dead wrong, according to the vast majority of climate scientists."

"CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about."

"Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit."

"Social Security is a promise that we cannot and must not break."

"You've got the top 400 Americans owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. Most folks do not think that is right."

"Who do you think controls the Republican Party? Big money controls the Republican Party. This is where their campaign contributions come from."

"The Fed has got to become a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of the middle class, not just Wall Street CEOs."

"Washington is dominated by big money."

"If you look at the newspapers here - the Washington papers - most of the discussion deals with campaign gossip."

"These are the same people who believe, in some cases, the federal government should not play any role in providing health care to our people or protecting the environment."

"In my view, a corporation is not a person. A corporation does not have First Amendment rights to spend as much money as it wants, without disclosure, on a political campaign."

"The Federal Reserve has a responsibility to ensure the safety and soundness of financial institutions and to contain systemic risks in financial markets."

"The Federal Reserve needs to provide small businesses in America with the same low-interest loans it gave to foreign banks."

"We need an energy revolution by breaking our dependence on fossil fuels, polluting fuels... I am very, very confident our small state will lead this. We will be noticed by the country and the world."

"You go to Scandinavia, and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living, in terms of education, health care and decent paying jobs."

"I think it makes people in the Pentagon kind of nervous to know that chemical agents and environmental factors could cause so much damage in terms of what may happen in the future."

"What some of us believe is that it is possible that if chemicals are related to Gulf War illness that some of the more severe symptoms may not erupt until 10 or 20 years down the line."

"A president and a party that can provide insurance for 31 million more Americans is far preferable to most voters than a party that only says, 'No.'"

"Progressive activists are angry that a Medicare-for-all single-payer approach was totally ignored during the health care debate."

"It is incomprehensible that drug companies still get away with charging Americans twice as much, or more, than citizens of Canada or Europe for the exact same drugs manufactured by the exact same companies."

"You know, I think many people have the mistaken impression that Congress regulates Wall Street. In truth that's not the case. The real truth is that Wall Street regulates the Congress."

"The details of what the Fed did were kept secret until a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that I sponsored required the Government Accountability Office to audit the Fed's lending programs during the financial crisis."