What they said. What they meant.

“I don't like the other party. The other party is bad. They waste time. They want to make it harder to vote. They want to keep people from voting. The other party spreads lies about our elections. The other party makes costs go up. They don't keep their promises. People don't like Congress. This is all the other party's fault. We should vote no on this.”

“I want to make it sound like the other side is wasting time. I'm going to ignore the parts of the resolution that are new and talk about the parts we already passed. I don't want to talk about socialism or voting. I want to talk about gas prices and a war instead.”

“Corporate greed is bad. I don't like corporate greed. CEOs make a lot of money. Gas prices are high. That's bad for people in Colorado. I want to blame Trump and his war for high prices, not socialism. Republicans help corporations. They give them tax cuts. That's bad. I like socialism. Democratic Socialists want universal healthcare and childcare. They want to help families. We should tax the rich. I don't want to cut programs like Medicaid and SNAP. I think Republicans want to cut them to give money to corporations.”

“You want to condemn any form of socialism. But your resolution is too broad. It says the government owning shares in companies is socialism. The current president bought shares of Intel and other companies. Maybe that's socialism too by your definition. How can the government regulate companies it owns shares in? Will we procure fairly from other companies when we have a stake in Intel? I would take more care with this bill's language. Many of my colleagues would be concerned about a president having the government buy private companies. But they are quiet now even though Donald Trump did this. They would protest if Joe Biden did it. Think about it.”

“This resolution is stupid. It doesn't matter. Americans worry about rising costs. The resolution ignores that. It doesn't talk about communism. But we are against socialism and okay with communism? That is stupid. The U.S. under Donald Trump nationalized companies. This resolution ignores that. That is stupid. The resolution also talks about a voter suppression act. That is stupid. This Congress lets tariffs increase the cost of groceries. An illegal war in Iran raises gas prices. A big, beautiful bill raises the cost of healthcare and utilities. Congress does not make Americans' lives easier. This resolution is stupid. It does not help Americans.”

“I don't like what my friend said. He talked about concentration of power. But the real concentration of power is in the presidency. Congress has done little to nothing to stop it. The other side is trying to concentrate power! They want to change election rules to help themselves. This bill would disrupt elections. It would cause chaos. The other side wants chaos to get more power. We need to stop them.”

“I don't like this resolution. It is against socialism. Socialism is good for working people. My colleagues are against socialism because they work for big corporations. They work for Big Pharma and insurance companies. They work for Wall Street. They work for defense contractors. They work for authoritarians and fascists. Socialism is the answer. We need socialism to help working people. My colleagues are against socialism because they are afraid of working people. They are afraid of losing power. They are greedy and power hungry. We need to fight back. We need to create a system that works for working people. We need socialism.”

“Here's what I think. We should be talking about high gas prices. We should be talking about the high cost of groceries. But instead we are talking about socialism. We already talked about that. It's a waste of time. It won't do anything. I want to talk about how the other side is not helping families. I want to talk about how their bill would restrict voting access. I want to fight against them. We should make sure people can vote in November. I don't want this resolution to pass.”