Charles Schumer Quotations

There are two tests in life, more important than any other test. On Monday morning, when you wake up, do you feel in the pit of your stomach you can't wait to go to work? And when you're ready to go home Friday afternoon, do you say, 'I can't wait to go home?'

I think teaching should be an exalted profession, not a picked-on profession.

Barack Obama knows that to create an economy built to last, we need to focus on middle-class families. Families who stay up on Sunday nights pacing the floor, like my dad did, while their children, tucked in bed, dream big dreams. Families who aren't sure what Monday morning will bring, but who believe our nation's best days are still ahead.

Do not let arguments of expediency persuade you. That is the slow road to oblivion. That is the tortured path to undoing step by step, bit by bit, as the river creates a canyon, the way of life that we love.

We are on the precipice of a crisis, a Constitutional crisis. The checks and balances, which have been at the core of this Republic, are about to be evaporated by the nuclear option. The checks and balances that say if you get 51% of the vote, you don't get your way 100% of the time. It is amazing, it's almost a temper tantrum.

In a brave new world, a post-September 11 world, anyone is going to make certain mistakes. The mistakes that have been made on homeland security, on protecting our Nation from another terrorist attack, are mistakes of omission. We are simply not doing enough.

I respect people who feel things passionately. I do. But when someone is a judge, that is not what they should bring to the bench. It is not really passion, except in rare instances, that serves the bench well. It is, rather, an ability to understand the law and follow it.

Anyone who thinks they have a monopoly on truth, and there is only one way to see the world, always gets us into trouble.

But these days there are a lot of younger people who would like to go into teaching but don't because the economic opportunities are sometimes elsewhere.

Republicans always try to paint Democrats as weak on defense. This time, they can't. After all, Mitt Romney's idea of an overseas accomplishment is sending U.S. jobs there.

America is a place where we all come together. It is a place of consensus.

Giving up even an ounce of precious freedom is a very serious thing to do.

In today's competitive economy, to stand still is to die.

Bigotry has always been the poison of America, and we oughta do everything to eradicate it with no excuses or explanations.

I went to the public schools myself. And they were great for me.

If we say the Geneva Convention is obsolete, then what do others who have our soldiers say?

We believe that there is a very real possibility that the Chinese government and the Chinese people see it in their interest to let the currency float, The jury is still out. We still need some concrete signs.

We stand on the precipice of a constitutional crisis, ... Bill Pryor is the last of the four most controversial nominees.

Tom Ridge is a decent man and a fine public servant, but unfortunately was not given the leeway or resources to tighten up homeland security in the way it should be done,

We have to get the feeling that they are on a path, in a reasonable period of time, to stop manipulating the currency, to let it float freely. It's a delicate game, it's a delicate gambit, because the Chinese are very sensitive about being pressured into things.

We want to see how much information is forthcoming between now and the 7th.

This bill [Immigration Reform and Control act of 1986] is a gamble, a riverboat gamble. There is no guarantee that employer sanctions will work or that amnesty will work. We are headed into uncharted waters.

There are many reasons why Mitt Romney should not become president, but perhaps the most important of all is the narrowness of his experience, perspective and vision.

You can set up whatever negotiations or structure you want, but until the Palestinians are willing to accept the fact, as the majority of Israelis do, that there should be two states between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, we won't have peace.

We've come to a basic agreement, which is that first, people will be legalized. In other words, not citizens, but they'll be allowed to work, come out of the shadows, travel. Then, we will make sure the border is secure. And we have specific metrics that are in the bill. I'm not going to get into what they are...

Biking through New York's boroughs in 2005, I thought about some old friends, Joe and Eileen Bailey. Though they are imaginary, I frequently talk to them.

No one believed [the 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens] was tough enough on illegal immigration, and it didn't give enough flexibility on future legal immigration.

I think we could be at a tipping point

The dome of the U.S. Capitol has fallen into severe disrepair... As the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, which oversees matters of the Capitol's physical plant, I have serious concerns about the consequences of omitting this funding from the stopgap spending measure.

Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, whether you are a liberal or a conservative, we know that neither this President nor prior Presidents of both parties did everything right or we would not have had a 9/11.

Our borders are much too porous...We want to keep them open, but we also have to be much more careful. ...Right now, if you get on an airplane [to the U.S.] and claim asylum...when you arrive at Kennedy Airport in New York, they will say to you, 'OK, we'll give you a hearing on whether you deserve asylum. Show up in a year.' And two-thirds of the people never show up.

I'm not sure we will have every single Democrat ... but we want a large number of Republicans to be able to vote for this bill because we think that will encourage the House not only to move forward but to pass a bill.

I think on this issue more than any other we're going to see sort of a bipartisan longing to get something done, and hopefully you're not going to find the fisticuffs that you would find on lots of other issues. I think you'll be able to glean a sense of progress without us revealing the specifics.

When Mitt Romney says he wants to reform the tax code, hold on to your wallets. We know Mitt Romney never met a tax haven he didn't like. But his new favorite tax haven is actually not the Cayman Islands - its Paul Ryan's budget.

Unfortunately, the administration's plan is an ounce of cure for a pound of problems.

I am not saying I will vote against John Ashcroft because he is pro-life, .. But let me say if someone was nominated for attorney general who was vehemently pro choice -- who in his or her career spent decades trying to find ways to expand the law abortion at nine months would be perfectly legal -- wouldn't you be more upset and raise more of a voice than against a nominee who was simply pro-choice?.

The bottom line is very simple. You negotiate on this, they will up the ante for the debt ceiling.

If we are going to stay a great power and I hope and pray we will we need the truth. We need to know what is going right and we need to know what is going wrong. There is no greater time than now.

If other cows with mad cow disease were slaughtered, we wouldn't know where to begin looking for people who might have been affected, .. With a comprehensive tracking system, we would.

I made education the highest priority of my campaign - actually education and jobs - and the reason is a simple one: I think the future of America depends on it.

Ideological warriors whether from the Left or the Right are bad news for the bench. They tend to make law, not interpret law. And that's not what any of us should want from our judges.

Well, I think it's too early to call Fallujah a failure.

We tend to talk, Democrats, as a party, in legislative terms.

Soft money will find its way and seep into the political system and corrode it, unless we plug every hole.

It is essential that all Americans take the time to honor and remember those individuals who gave their lives in defense of our liberty.

So I want my kids to go to public schools because I think it's a better education overall.

I'm totally opposed to vouchers. I will fight them tooth and nail.

I'd like to see the health care professionals making decisions, not some bureaucrat in Indianapolis working for an insurance company.

I basically believe that until China stop stealing our intellectual property, and until they stop keeping our companies out that do good things, the amount we will gain from export jobs is minimized, and the amount we lose in middle class incomes is maximized.

When someone takes a private photo, on a private cell phone, it should remain just that: private.

A devastating commentary on the war in Iraq is that we have been unable to spend money on infrastructure.

[Barack] Obama administration, the [George W.]Bush administration have done nothing. And as China has manipulated its currency, we`ve lost trillions of dollars of wealth and millions of good-paying jobs.

I'm strongly for a patient Bill of Rights. Decisions ought to be made by doctors, not accountants.

I am deeply skeptical of trade deals in general.But the only way they can get a number of Democrats is by doing a strong real currency bill that goes after the worst of the trading partners, the one that`s stealing our high-end jobs.

As long as the Palestinians send terrorists onto school buses and to nightclubs to blow up people, Israel has no choice but to build the fence.

Arafat was a barrier to peace.

But I don't think the Democratic Party is at eye level with the middle class.

The currency bill we have would finally do something for China`s rapacious policies.

I want to attract the best people into teaching.

We need to make sure middle-class people are able to pay the bills. We need to make sure that poor people don't starve. Those are values, too.

The companies move labor to the lowest-cost markets. And so I don`t - I used to support these agreements. In the Congress, I lost the AFL-CIO endorsement a few years because I supported them. But when middle class incomes are declining, these agreements don`t work well for America.

You do have to change things as warfare changes.

Democratic Rep. Charles Schumer of New York made a plea to Livingston, the incoming speaker. These new hearings, these new subpoenas wave a red flag that common sense and common wisdom are not welcome here, .. Mr. Livingston, this may be the first and most important task you will ever face as speaker. Lead us out of this abyss.

Obviously, there are conservatives who are in the mainstream and conservatives who would take people's rights away.

Let me say this, to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little tiny, yes, porky amendments - the American people really don't care.

When Mitt Romney says he wants to reform the tax code, hold onto your wallets.

The export market is based, on high-paying jobs. I`ve seen statistics that show that people make over 88 a year generally benefit from this because these are export jobs.

Palestinians don't really believe in a state of Israel. They, unlike a majority of Israelis, who have come to the conclusion that they can live with a two-state solution to be determined by the parties, the majority of Palestinians are still very reluctant, and they need to be pushed to get there.

I told the President, I told Rahm Emanuel and others in the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counter-productive, because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them, they are not going to sit down and talk.

I believe the war on terror is the vital discussion of this decade and of our generation, probably. To win the war on terror, you need a good offense and a good defense. On defense, I regret to say, basically, this administration has not come close to doing what is necessary.

I feel very strongly that we need to change the way we do trade because it has been one of the major factors that lead to decline of middle class incomes.

Inaction is perhaps the greatest mistake of all.

...the only people who use them [so-called assault weapons] are mass murderers...

Democrats don't relate to middle-class people.

If you talk privately to our tech companies, our pharmaceutical companies, our high-end manufacturing companies, the high end of America, where the good-paying jobs are, China is not letting them in unless China gets to steal their intellectual property in a company that`s 51 percent owned by the Chinese.

Candidates With Deeply Held Christian Beliefs Are Unfit and Disqualified From Serving As A Federal Judge.

The greatest problem America faces is the decline of middle class incomes.

You know, my name .... comes from the word shomer, guardian, watcher. My ancestors were guardians of the ghetto wall in Chortkov. And I believe Hashem [Orthodox for God] actually gave me that name. One of my roles, very important in the United States senate, is to be a shomer -- to be a or the shomer Yisrael. And I will continue to be that with every bone in my body ...

We're here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true...

All we ask for is registration, just like we do for cars.

If the Saudis were culpable, they should be held accountable. If they had nothing to do with 9/11, they have nothing to fear.

We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission!

When one has success, the answer is not to undo that success. It is to continue what has been done.

We're asking that this be done, and I don't think we have much choice. The economy seems to be going along nicely now. But if you ask any economist what's the No. 1 thing that could stop it, it's oil prices.

We live in a new world. It is a post-September 11 world. We have to adjust to those realities. I believe we can do both: have security and liberty, the great concern of our Founding Fathers.

This questionnaire should have been completed with care and candor, but it seems to be a bit rushed and not as carefully prepared as one would hope.

This process is getting a little more absurd the further we move,

When you put together a prescription drug bill that puts the pharmaceutical and insurance industry first, and the recipients way down at the bottom, of course you're going to get one big mess. And we have it.

When the Klan has been forced to unmask, they have been broken.

the only mark where there has been a waiver in the commitment made to New York.

We need to be careful here. This is a nominee who could shift the balance of the court, and thus the laws of the nation, for decades to come.

When was the last time that a covert agent's name was leaked, jeopardizing that agent's life, the life of that agent's network, of informants and the security of this country? ... This is not just another ordinary leak.

There are too many questions still to be answered, too many doubts still to be alleviated to say that this nomination is a slam dunk,

Let what we are doing be a beacon to the people of New Orleans. They should always know there is always hope, hope that is represented today by the rebuilding.

Sen. Graham and I do not think it would be appropriate to vote on this bill while the president is there, so we have agreed to delay the vote,

Senator Specter's questions aren't exactly identical to the 80-plus that I've asked of Judge Roberts, but the spirit of asking them and the need for a response is the same.

Secretary Snow and Chairman Greenspan both know that if there is no further movement by Thanksgiving, our legislation will pass,

Senate rules to put items that we believe should be heard by the Senate on the agenda.

So if they can't find the records within 24-hours the gun will go right to a criminal,

She said, 'Nobody knows my views on Roe v. Wade, ... She said, 'No one can speak for me on Roe v. Wade.