Christopher Shays: “As a moderate Republican who has voted for a number of budgets that have taken care of people, I have seen the result of…”

“As a moderate Republican who has voted for a number of budgets that have taken care of people, I have seen the result of our work. The result of our work in some cases is 12-year-olds having babies, it is 14-year-olds selling drugs, it is 15-year-olds who cannot read their own diplomas, it is 24-year-olds who have never had a job, it is 30-year-old grandparents. We have a caretaking society, and it has become a caretaking society because of what we have done in the Federal Government. When I was elected from the State government to the Federal government, I thought the Federal Government could do it better. It cannot do it better because what it does is, it adds up all the people in a room, adds up their entire shoe size, divides the number of people by the shoe size, and say, 'Here is 8½, wear it. If your shoe size is 10, I'm sorry. Here is 8½, wear it.' We have a society that is going in the wrong direction. Our budget changes that. We increase the student loans, we increase Medicare, we increase Medicaid, we increase welfare payments. But ultimately what we are trying to do, as a columnist said, in the final analysis, it is not what we do for our children but what we have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.”