Christopher Shays: “I have been in public life for 20 years. I have served 13 years in the statehouse and now 8 years in Congress, but I was…”

“I have been in public life for 20 years. I have served 13 years in the statehouse and now 8 years in Congress, but I was in the statehouse and I looked at Congress, an institution that I revered as someone who in high school and college was an American history major, and wondered why Congress would not do its most basic responsibility, and that is to get its own financial house in order. I knew we had to do that at the State level, but I saw Congress continually deficit spend and wondered why it was happening. I realized it was not the fault necessarily of one party or the White House versus Congress or the Congress versus the White House. Republicans did not want to control military spending, and Democrats did not want to control the growth of what we call entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, other programs. By law, you were entitled to the benefit, entitlements never being voted on by Congress on automatic pilot.”