Political Quotes

“I appreciate your yielding, Mr. Chairman, and I agree with you. First of all, I appreciate your opposition to the amendment. The big entitlement programs are going to have to be addressed, and what we are doing here in dealing with this small piece of the Federal budget pie, that is, domestic discretionary spending, there is no way we can find enough savings to make a real dent in the magnitude of our deficit and debt. That has to be done. I can understand your frustration about it. It is a frustration I think we all share. I think the difficulty, frankly, that the administration is having is probably the same difficulty that the majority is having, and that is whoever puts the proposal on the table first gets their head taken off. I think probably the only way to get to 'yes'--and there is no way we are going to be able to reform the entitlement programs in a partisan way; it has to be done in a bipartisan way--is frankly if both parties can come together and put something on the table together. I think that is what is going to have to happen. But you are right, there is no way we are going to make even a small dent in things until we have that bigger, more important conversation.”