Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama): “There are currently two bills headed for a vote to raised the debt ceiling and reduce spending. One of those bills, from House Speaker John Boehner, cuts about $1 trillion in spending and raises the debt ceiling by $1 trillion—until the end of the year. The other bill, from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, cut

Brian Williams, NBC "Nightly News" anchor: "Why shouldn't rich folks pay more?" Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): "They do. They pay an extraordinary amount more and in fact about half of Americans don't pay any income taxes at all. That isn't a sticking point."

"And there is something more fundamental, Mr. President, that is going on here. This president is being treated differently than other presidents." No other president has been stook up, shook down, or held hostage as President of the United States over this debt vote. This is fundamentally unfair Mr. Speaker, to change the rules in the middle o

Nancy Pelosi went to the House floor late Thursday afternoon "as a Mom" to defend the involvement of the public sector in our lives. "I want to say something as a Mom about this dismantling of the public sector. I view my role in politics as an extension of my role as a mother and now a grandmother. As parents, all of us know that we want to do

"Well, you know, the way these hours and days have been progressing, Lawrence, I can't even imagine with that kind of specificity what that night will look like. But I don't think it will look like that. We believe still that in the end, and we're getting towards the end -- but in the end, cooler heads will prevail. Sanity will prevail in the Unite

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) explains why default by inflation is worse than default by not raising the debt ceiling. Rep. Paul also talks about how the devaluing of the U.S. has led to record prices in gold bullion. "Default is coming. The only argument that's going on now is how to default, not send the checks out or just print the money. In all co

In an interview with CNN's "The Situation Room" anchor Wolf Blitzer Thursday, Daley said of Obama, "He's not spoken to the speaker in a few days." "The truth is it looks as though the Speaker is engaged in putting together his bill and getting votes for his bill." Obama, who addressed the nation on Monday, has not made any public appearances

"You might, if you were reasonable say, as Republicans say, 'You know what? I didn't get everything I wanted out of this, but I got a lot. And it's the right thing to do for the economy.' That is the, look, what I know about the Speaker's proposal in the House right now is that there are already, I believe, 55, 56, 57, 58 Senators, Democrats and Re

"He is dividing us as a nation," Langone said. "He's not bringing us together. He's willfully dividing us. He's petulant." "The thing I fear most about the future of America is dividing us... He is behaving in a way designed, in my opinion, to divide us. To make us look at each other with skepticism, with suspicion. That's the end of America as

"The way I see it, Harry Reid has three options. One, is to suffer the economic consequences of default. Which I hope, all of us hope, he doesn't choose. Two, is to bring up the bill we sent prior. The one he claims to be opposed to. Or, to accept the compromise bill that we are sending over today so that we can resolve this crisis and get on about

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC): "I've said time and time again, if the President gets up to August 2nd, without a piece of legislation, he should not allow this country to go into default. He should sign an Executive Order invoking the 14th Amendment and send that to all the governmental agencies for us to continue to pay our bills. He could do that wit

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Carney: "I understand one of the things that’s come out of the House conference is this desire to stand firm and then stick the President with default, I think is one quote that came out of there, which is really incredibly juvenile, right? Is this the game that the idea here is who can be blamed for doing serious harm for our economy? Shouldn’

Charles Krauthammer: "The reason the ratings will drop -- and I think it will within a year, if not less -- is because one of the two major parties in every argument, every negotiation, every plan it's offered, has been looking for loopholes as a way to appear to cut spending when it doesn't. And the worst example is the Reid plan, which has a t

In the same thought White House press secretary Jay Carney claims they are not playing politics, but then says the White House is "winning" politically. "On the suggestion that this is about politics, I don't think anybody in this room that's looked at a poll could argue with the idea that we're winning this argument on the merits as a political

"The president is prohibited to do that. If he had the power to do that he would effectively be a dictator," presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said. Bachmann was referring to the possibility of the President using the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney: "Look, I invite people -- and don’t count on me; talk to economists and business leaders. If they’re so convinced that this is all made up, buy and hold, see what happens. Tell your members of Congress, don’t worry about it. I mean, honestly, it’s just a false argument. It is the gorilla dust that

"I think the President is going to have to step in and he's going to have to say basically 'Look guys, there doesn't seem to be an agreement here and so basically let's sign this clean extension.' By the way, which is what just about every member of the Democrats on the House side are petitioning for and I think will resolve this matter," Rep. Elij

Chris Matthews says that an "absurd atmosphere of one side against the other" on the debt negotiations is why politicians are unpopular.

Sean Hannity challenges Sen. John McCain over his criticism of the Tea Party.

Lawrence O'Donnell claims that the debt negotiations are still in the "bluff stage," despite how close it is to August 2nd.