Political Quotes

“Thanks to my friend from Ohio for setting the playing field for us this evening. I think back to when I was making up my mind about running for Congress some 4, 5 years ago, and I was in Connecticut--Cheshire, where I live today--sitting and watching a Federal Government that seemed intent on using the power that it has accumulated here in Congress and in the administration to essentially turn over government to their friends. Now, whether their friends were in the oil industry or their friends were in the health insurance industry or the pharmaceutical industry or the defense contracting industry, whatever it was, it seemed as if the reason that some people had run for office, the reason that some people had sought positions in the Bush administration was to hand over the reins of government to corporate interests; to people that, frankly, didn't have the public interest at heart. And I think back to the reasons that I decided to run for Congress, and at the foundation of it was a real belief that we had essentially begun to privatize all sectors of the United States economy and the United States Government and that taxpayer dollars were more often being used not to accrue to the public benefit but to accrue to the benefit of a small group of people who happened to hold and wield influence here in Washington. And so I think about what would have happened back in January and February of last year as we were setting the economic strategy toward recovery.…”