Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, in closing, with the numbers we are facing--trillion- dollar deficits and $23 trillion in debt--what is another $10 billion? Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that Congress needs to start making the tough decisions. The responsibility is at our feet. It is in Article I of the Constitution, that same Constitution we all took an oath to in January. And I am not talking about tough decisions regarding the harbor maintenance trust fund by itself. I am talking about a lot of programs, all programs, mandatory spending programs. And an inconvenient truth, Mr. Speaker, is this: As a percentage of our economy, mandatory spending is going higher. Discretionary spending, the money we are talking about today, is getting lower. I wish my friend from Oregon would bring the same passion to the floor that he brings on the harbor maintenance trust fund to actually righting the ship on spending in the country as a whole to include solutions to the mandatory spending programs that continue to skyrocket totally unchecked by the Congress. I want more money for education. I want more money for science and healthcare. And I want more money for harbor maintenance. I have backlogs in my own district. But it needs to be prioritized. This discussion should have taken place 3 months ago. In fact, it did. There were other issues addressed in the negotiation for the budget caps that we operate under today.…”