Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation. Our committee has participated in $83 billion worth of this package, saving our men and women in uniform from finding themselves holding wooden rifles. I use that term because it once happened. It wouldn't happen under sequestration, but we would make cuts that would make them just as endangered in some cases as if they were carrying wooden rifles. Now, many people will talk about public servants in a less than kind way. I am not one of them. The Federal workforce has kept its promises. The Federal workers are not always well led or well managed, but they themselves deliver the product they're asked to deliver. However, the President's own commission--often called Simpson-Bowles on which the chairman of the Budget Committee served--found something that they all agreed on, that was that, in fact, the pension program that we as Federal employees--and I say ``we'' because Members of Congress pay into Social Security, have a 401(k), but we also have a pension--that that pension was more generous than our counterparts in the private sector. {time} 1220 They recommended that we, in fact, make it a 50/50 shared pension. My contribution from our committee, in fact, does that.…”