Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from South Dakota for a nice introduction. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today on the budget that has been proposed by the majority party. If I might lay a little groundwork, in addition to what the Senator from South Dakota said about me, my time in elected office dates back to 1983. I was first elected to be a county commissioner in Lancaster County. After that, I went to the Lincoln City Council, where I served for a couple of years, primarily because I had concerns about where the budget of the city of Lincoln was headed. I ran for mayor of Lincoln, and I served two terms as mayor of the city of Lincoln in a strong mayor form of government. From there I went to the Governor's office of the State of Nebraska, and from there I went on to become Secretary of Agriculture in the Bush administration, and 4 years ago I joined the Senate after running for election. I have dealt with government budgets all of my career. I worked on my first budget when I was 32 years old. The one thing I knew was that it had to be balanced or it was not going to work. I have submitted budgets over and over again through those years, all balanced. But let me focus a little more intently on the State of Nebraska and my time as Governor there. Nebraskans have a very practical approach to spending money. It is very straightforward. If you don't have the money, you don't spend it. It is that straightforward.…”