Political Quotes

“I represent the 19th district of Illinois. I am honored to be here in my second term in Washington, D.C.; and, Mr. Speaker, tonight as one who is honored to be a member of the Blue Dog Democratic Coalition, we will be joined by hopefully several other members of the Blue Dog Coalition tonight; and we want to focus our time on discussing the budget situation, the negative consequences of a return to deficits and debt, and the Blue Dog message about the need for a new budget plan. It is one thing to have a budget plan as we started this session and this budget year and as the President outlined in his budget plan. It is one thing to head in the direction we intend to go and meant to go, but then unanticipated obstacles, unfortunate happenings and incidents, dreadful experiences deter the plans and get us off the path and the goals in which we intended when we outlined our first intentions. Part of that we know was the recession, deeper than any wanted to acknowledge or to accept; and of course September 11, the impact that it has had we are still feeling and will for some time: tax cuts, spending. All that goes together in affecting that original plan that the President set forth in the budget resolution. So part of our job as elected people is to make sure, at least in my estimation, that we are flexible enough to adjust to situations that get us off that direction that we started.”