Christopher Shays: “Up until now, with the balanced budget, for the first time, this is the Congress that is willing to take on the heavy…”

“Up until now, with the balanced budget, for the first time, this is the Congress that is willing to take on the heavy lifting of controlling 50 percent of the budget that is basically on automatic pilot. We voted on a third, as the gentleman pointed out so well, those appropriation items, defense and nondefense, that come out of appropriations. There is the 15 to 16 percent of interest on the national debt which we do not vote on. We have been voting since I have been here on a third of the budget, trying to control it. For the first time, we are trying to control the entitlements. All we are trying to do is slow their growth to 5, 6, 7 percent a year. We are not cutting them. We are allowing them to increase. That is just bottom-line issue. You know, I would love to just get into this issue. I would like your reaction, I have been here now for about 9 years, and I am seeing good men and women not run again, and some of them have very real personal reasons. I just want to express my concern about some of them. I happen to think of myself as a moderate Republican. I think of myself as a centrist in terms of my ideology. I like to think of myself as passionately moderate. I am in the center. I am seeing some of my fellow moderates quit. They say this is not a fun place anymore. I am thinking to myself, with all due respect, when has it ever really been a fun place? I get up in the morning and say I have one of the best jobs in the world.…”