Senate has to advise and consent. That doesn't mean you have to vote yes; you can vote no. It's not a rubber stamp. But what these guys are doing is, "Wait a minute, we don't have to vote yes or no, and maybe we can trick our voters into not holding us accountable for not voting yes or no."

The job of a legislator is much more fixing existing law, revising it, improving it, than it is passing something that doesn't exist.

Despair is a natural emotion.

It's important to use executive orders. Every president since Washington has.

The current situation in Iraq is ultimately a crisis of governance, which has allowed extremist groups to take advantage of disillusioned segments of the Iraqi population.

Social security has enabled people to retire with dignity and overwhelmingly not be in poverty. We have to keep it solvent.

Donald Trump always puts himself first. He built a business career, in the words of one of his own campaign staffers, "off the backs of the little guy." And as a candidate, he started his campaign with a speech where he called Mexicans rapists and criminals, and he has pursued the discredited and really outrageous lie that President Obama wasn't born in the United States. It is so painful to suggest that we go back to think about these days where an African-American could not be a citizen of the United States.