Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for his extraordinary leadership in representing the House Democrats as the ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee. He brings to that position the values shared by the American people of fairness, transparency, and openness in what goes on here in Congress, and doing so in a way that is accountable to the American people. So I thank him for his leadership. {time} 1000 Sadly, I come to the floor again to talk against, yet again, another Republican tax scam. The gentleman who just spoke talked about how we should be filled with joy--filled with joy. Well, if we are talking about emotion, let us talk about St. Augustine. St. Augustine, 17 centuries ago--17 centuries ago, 1,700 years ago--said: ``A State which is not governed according to justice is just a bunch of thieves.'' Pope Benedict, who quoted Augustine, said: ``The State must inevitably face the question of how justice can be achieved here and now.'' Benedict cautioned against the danger of certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interest. That is what they talked about. This is about justice, justice for our country in terms of economic justice, justice in our society in terms of everyone participating in the prosperity of America and not, yet again, the warmed-over stew of trickle-down economics. If you give 83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent--glory, alleluia--it may trickle down on you.…”