Political Quotes

“So to that point, my experience in Hawaii, where we have had a balanced budget for a long time--and I was a State legislator--so I had knock-down, drag-out fights over all this kind of stuff, whether it be to increase spending, or tax reductions, or tax increases. But it was always against the backdrop that it had to balance. My sense was always that the folks that we represented understood that that presented us with a series of tough choices, and they understood that in the big picture, the tough choices that we had to make as a result of a balanced budget, were for the better, the overall, long-term, big picture fiscal health, economic health and social health of Hawaii. Did the gentleman have that experience in Utah? I yield to the gentleman from Utah. Mr. McADAMS. Madam Speaker, we did have that experience, and I would add, it made us better. The county that I presided over as mayor, we had a AAA bond rating. The faith in our ability to pay our debts meant we paid lower interest rates. People knew that we would not default on those debts, and we saved tax dollars because people knew that we could balance our budget. I would like to add one point to the gentleman's consideration. Fiscal responsibility is important. It is important for our States. It is important for this country.…”