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I think reconciliation is Obama's goal - but the fight with the Republicans is like a fight with pit bulls, they never let go. Even worse, now the Republicans feel they can keep pushing and he will keep giving. They have not seen a stiff resistance on his part.

When Republicans used reconciliation in 2001 for the Bush tax cuts, they used it to increase the deficit. The whole purpose of reconciliation is for deficit reduction!

What Republicans have done in my view is that they are systematically dismantling a sense of community in America.

I have a lot of Republican friends.

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

I will not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with respect of the past.

For a movement supposedly devoted to conserving the past, conservatives are oh-so-splendid at forgetting their own past.

In 2001, Republicans used reconciliation to pass President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut that mainly benefited the wealthy.

There are people still in the Republican Party that I believe practice the communication of anger, of disappointment, of regret, of pain, of sorrow, of suffering. That's not what the American people want to hear.

There's no light at the end of the tunnel in the Republican message, no promise of better things to come. There's only the present stagnation, followed by a slow decline.