Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity to speak about a topic that I think has made all the difference in the world for my State of Nebraska. I did have the privilege, a few years back, of serving as the Governor of the State of Nebraska. Until I came out to join the Cabinet as Secretary of Agriculture, I served about 6 years. Before that, I was the mayor of our State capital in the community of Lincoln, a great community. We followed the same pattern at the Governor's office that we did at the mayor's office. And we Governors had a simple principle: We did not spend money we did not have. Before I talk about the balanced budget amendment, let me explain how that worked as mayor of Lincoln. My budget staff would go to work. They worked on the budget pretty much year-round--really, it was a year- round endeavor--and at some point in the process I would get a stack of paperwork that was about an inch thick, with line after line after line after line of items they were proposing we needed to spend money on to keep the city running. There would be everything from police cars to whatever, to salaries. I mean, imagine what it takes to run a city, and it would be on that list. I would go through item by item, page by page, studying each entry. Ultimately, we came to a conclusion for each entry: Yes, I believe this is necessary to keep our city going.…”