Dick Durbin Quotations

It is unacceptable that disabled veterans in Illinois rank at the bottom of the list when it comes to disability pay. We owe our disabled veterans more than speeches, parades and monuments.

We can't do much about ensuring that the homeland is safe if our local police and sheriffs' departments don't have the personnel they need to keep our streets and neighborhoods secure.

We all join the President in applauding the sacrifices made by our brave men and women in uniform. But we must continue to provide them the tools they need to accomplish the difficult tasks they face.

Millions of Americans take vitamins safely every day, including me. Vitamins and mineral supplements taken in recommended doses are safe. It's the designer supplements that are worrisome.

It simply isn't fair for senators to cut to the front of the line when seniors around the country have been forced to wait for hours to get a flu shot.

There is no room for legal hair-splitting when it comes to the humane treatment of detainees - not in a nation founded on the rule of law and respect for human rights.

Whether we're talking about Red Cross, or Second Harvest, Salvation Army or other groups, this is direct assistance right to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. We need to do our part at the government level, but this dramatic outpouring of support across the country to the Red Cross and other agencies, is money well spent. It's money that really is effectively cutting across a lot of red tape and helping people,

Would you restrict freedom in America, or would you expand it?

Words of tribute are in order to honor the sacrifice of these brave men and women and their loved ones. But words are not enough. We owe them leadership and a clear strategy to bring our troops home with their mission truly accomplished.

Whenever we asked Judge Roberts basic questions about his moral compass and his life experience, he declined to answer.

Judge Samuel Alito, millions of Americans are concerned about your nomination. They're worried that you would be a judicial activist who would restrict our rights and freedoms.

In my lifetime, it's the Supreme Court, not Congress, that integrated our public schools, that allowed people of different races to marry, and established the principle that our government should respect the value of privacy of American families. These decisions are the legacy of justices who chose to expand American freedom.

Hard to imagine 40 years ago people could be convicted of a crime, fined, sent to prison for using the most common forms of birth control.

We see it in attempts on Capitol Hill to impose gag rules on rules on doctors on what they can say to their patients about family planning. And we certainly see it now with an effort by the government to tap our phones; invade our medical records, credit information, library records and the most sensitive personal information in the name of national security.

As a government lawyer, Samuel Alito wrote that he personally believe very strongly the Constitution does not protect the right to an abortion.

I have thought about this issue of abortion time and again. It is not an easy issue for most people.I came to believe over the years that a woman should be able to make this agonizing decision with her doctor and her family and her conscience, and that we should be very careful that we don't make that decision a crime except in the most extreme circumstances.

There is also the issue of personal privacy when it comes the executive power. Throughout our nation's history, whether it was habeas corpus during the Civil War, Alien and Sedition Acts in World War I, or Japanese internment camps in World War II, presidents have gone too far.

In going too far, they [presidents] have taken away the individual rights of American citizens.

We want to make certain that every American who stood in silent tribute to Rosa Parks hopes that the Sepreme Court Judge will break silence and speak out clearly for the civil rights that define our unity as a nation.

The courage of federal Judge Frank Johnson is well-known.He was the one that gave the legal authority for the right to march from Selma to Montgomery, and he suffered dearly for it. He was ostracized and rejected. His life was threatened as a result of it.

Under unitary executive theory, the [George W.]Bush administration has claimed the right to seize American citizens in the United States and imprison them indefinitely without a charge.

The last stop to protect rights and liberties is the Supreme Court.

I hope that Republicans in the House and Mr. Cantor will embrace that as part of immigration reform.

We have 11 million people in this country that need a pathway to citizenship.

Our party is a diverse one, as is my home state of Illinois.

Unfortunately the Republican tax cut will deny important revenues to many states facing their own deficits. This will create greater pressure for higher state and local taxes.

We are dealing with the question of the 11 million people paying their taxes, having a path to legalization and, then, ultimately, to citizenship - tough issues, but we are coming together and I think we can do it.

You know, the purpose of reconciliation is to avoid the filibuster. The filibuster is an effort to talk something to death.

If you look at the record and the enviable record which Sandra Day O'Connor has written, you find she was the fifth and decisive vote to safeguard Americans' right to privacy, to require our courtrooms to grant access to the disabled, to allow the federal government to pass laws to protect the environment, to preserve the right of universities to use affirmative action, to ban the execution of children in America.

God is not a franchise of the Republican Party.

Let me tell you the first president to recognize the state of Israel was Harry Truman, a Democrat and every president since, Democrat and Republican, has stood closely with Israel.

Those of us who believe in God and those of us who have dedicated our lives to helping others in the name of God don't want to take a second seat to anyone who is suggesting that one word out of the platform means that the Democrats across America are godless.

The Supreme Court is the last refuge in America for our rights and liberties.

Our timing is right... The election results are still fresh in the minds of my Republican colleagues and they don't want to go through this again.

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.

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings,

Illinois Senator Paul Simon, once said "The test for a Supreme Court nominee is not where he stands on any one specific issue. The test is this: Will you use your power on the court to restrict freedom or expand it"?

Giving a veteran a flag is not a substitute for giving our vets the quality health care they were promised

These are men and women who are willing to risk their lives in defense of their country. And the fact that their orientation - sexual orientation's been held against them is a blot on our nation's reputation.

We will have health care reform in America.

Justice [Sandra Day] O'Connor has been the critical decisive vote on many issues that go to the heart of who we are as a nation.

If we do nothing, as the Republicans suggest, we're going to see health care costs reach a point where small businesses can't afford it and families can't afford it. We're going to see people turned down from pre-existing conditions. We're going to find the Medicare doughnut hole - a gap in coverage that's going to hurt a lot of seniors.

Justice O'Connor was the fifth vote to uphold the time- honored principle, which bears repeating, of separation of church and state. There was real wisdom in the decision of our forefathers in writing a Constitution that gave us an opportunity to grow as such a diverse nation, and we should never forget it.

We have a long way to go, some tough issues ahead of us, and I'm sure there will be some obstacles in the path ... But the good faith effort that's being put into this absolutely is encouraging to me and gives me hope.

And the banks - hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created - are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.

may be a very competent individual. But how in the world can we get to the truth of the question as to what went wrong with Hurricane Katrina -- how can we really hope to discover the incompetence that led to all this human suffering and devastation -- if the administration is going to investigate itself?

If this is just a process, a legal contest and you'll play for any team that asks you to play, it raises a question about where would you draw the line, if you would ever draw the line.

I am hopeful that the fact that this investigation is going forward will be a clear signal to the oil companies to bring down their prices immediately so that we can have some relief.

I don't think we should race to a conclusion here, ... Ordinarily it takes six to eight weeks to evaluate a Supreme Court nominee. We shouldn't rush to judgment.

I don't think we should race to a conclusion here,

I don't think we should assume that's going to happen at all.

When his party turned on him, he was in trouble and she was in trouble.

Having the strategic petroleum reserve, sadly, puts crude oil in the hands of refineries that can't refine it quickly enough to affect the market, ... With this gasoline and jet-fuel reserve, we can have an immediate impact on the market.

He said he spent more time worrying over and working on that decision,

He wants to work with people around the world, and he couldn't work with people in his own office. And he's supposed to be open, as our man at the U.N., to ideas from other people. And he's been a real tyrant when it came to people he worked with, who disagreed with him. This man doesn't have the temperament for this job.

It appears that Illinois farmers pay a heavy price in the president's budget this year. His proposed budget cuts to price support programs will cost Illinois farmers about $65 million.

I think what happened to Ronnie White in the United states Senate was disgraceful,

It goes to the question of what the goal is here. Is it regime change in Iraq or regime change in the Senate?

It is only with valid, credible, good intelligence that we are able to anticipate someone who is trying to cause harm to the American people or to strike us in our territory or to, frankly, attack our special interests around the world. Intelligence is a critical part of our national defense.

It is an element of fairness, an element of opportunity. It basically says in America, we won't let you buy an election. If you're going to come in and try to do that, then you're at least going to give the other candidate a chance to compete.

really raises serious questions about the consistency of the policy.

Some of the opinions that he's handed down are controversial decisions: deciding that the Family and Medical Leave Act did not apply to state employees; authorizing a strip search in a situation involving a mother and her 10-year-old daughter; questions involving the rights of privacy,

Some (of them) say, 'What's next?' ... They want to find out as much as they can about the real life of Lincoln.

I wonder, where are you? ... Beyond loyalty to the process of law, how do you view this law when it comes to expanding our personal freedom?

I wonder, where are you? ... All of us are trying to get down to, what are your core values?

I think it would be a clean break for this President.I think we need a strong president with credible leadership,

M&M categories -- the multimillionaires and the mere mortals.

I worry... he will tip the balance of the scales of justice. He will tip the balance against protecting our basic privacy and personal freedoms. He will tip the balance in favor of presidential power even when it violates the law.

We are the largest magnet for this level of talent in the world.

We need to know as much as we can and as much as he will tell us about his values and beliefs,

We are about to enter the Roberts era on the Supreme Court,

When they came to us five or 10 years ago, no one could ever have dreamed within days of the completion of this building, they would have made this historic decision,

Where eight years ago the want ads were empty and the welfare lines were long, we now have 22 million new jobs in our nation, ... Where eight years ago stagnation was crippling our economy, we now stand strong.

We have lost over 2,000 of our best and bravest. Over 15,000 have been seriously wounded, ... We are spending more than $6 billion a month, with no end in sight. And this Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee refuses to even ask the hard questions about the misinformation and disinformation given to the American people, and the efforts made by the members of this administration to cover it up.

When will this bridge be completed ... we don't know, ... But we have to take this step to make sure we are moving in that direction quickly.

The credibility of the president is on the line. And I believe that he should move forward as quickly as possible to call for a full investigation. We should be able to point to those people fully responsible for putting that misleading language in the State of the Union address. They should be held accountable, and they should be dismissed.

Why is it we're transferring all this family and business income to businesses making record profits? ... I think frankly this is unfair to families and businesses. This money needs to come back to families and the consumer.

We need to be sure this institution is in the mainstream of American thinking. What we need to do is ask the obvious questions.

the president's call for blind loyalty to his policies in Iraq.

Two strikes and two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Gore gets a hit,

This was a victory for the American people,

This opportunity is slipping through our hands like grains of sand.

We do not want to end the Patriot Act. We want to mend the Patriot Act.

At the very least, Mr. Gonzales helped to create a permissive environment that made it more likely that abuses would take place.

There's more candor this time around, which helps, but I'm still looking at some of the basic questions,

it would have put millions of American consumers and families at risk of losing coverage for necessary health care.

A proud day for Chicago and a great day for Washington.

Apparently the White House believes she doesn't have any burden to prove she deserves a lifetime appointment.

The VA cannot correct its errors by taking money away from veterans who depend on that income.

. . . The White House promised new details in his speech. The president delivered generalities,

The United States Senate learned very little from Littleton, Colorado ... We defeated a sensible amendment that would have at least had a background check at gun shows.

This amendment ensures that any funds received by the owners of Evergreen Terrace will be used for the benefit of the residents, and it creates a system of accountability that makes sure that, at the end of the day, the tenants are the top priority.

Americans are struggling to pay home heating costs, yet the president's budget cuts funding to help the most vulnerable in our nation pay their bills.

a man who can help heal the divisions of our nation.

They faced the possibility that Congress would have told them in a matter of days not to do this.

Absent a court decision that voids that or some other last-minute change, we're going to have a much different Air Guard facility here,

It is very difficult to track how this man, who gave us such misleading information before the invasion of Iraq, now under active investigation for endangering American troops, is now the toast of the town,

It's an increase directly attributable to profit-taking by the oil companies,

It's going to make for a very difficult line of inquiry at our hearing, but we have to understand what she's all about, what her values and beliefs are, so we can make an informed judgment,

Evergreen tenants should not have to spend another day living in substandard conditions,