Political Quotes

“The purpose of my second-degree amendment is to address those flaws. It does not go to the heart of their argument about expanding the number of earmarks that would be subject to disclosure. In fact, if anything, it expands the number of earmarks subject to disclosure. My amendment would strengthen the DeMint amendment in three ways: It retains the Reid-McConnell bipartisan language in the underlying bill. The DeMint amendment No. 11 now pending does not go far enough in terms of covering so-called targeted tax benefits. A lot of attention has been given to Duke Cunningham, the former Congressman from California, who was steering Department of Defense funds to certain contractors and benefiting from it personally. He paid dearly for this transgression and is currently in prison. That is an example of an egregious abuse of the appropriations process. We understand, as well, there are decisions made by Congress outside of the appropriations process which can be just as beneficial, if not more profitable, to individuals and businesses.”