Political Quotes

“I look back over the last 5 years and I think of when I was first elected in Congress in 1994, what were the big issues of the day. The Democrat Congress and President Clinton had just enacted the biggest tax hike in the history of this country, raising our tax burden to its highest level ever in peacetime history. We had massive deficits of $200 billion to $300 billion a year as far as the eye could see, and there was a proposed government takeover of our health care system. The American people did not necessarily like that situation, and they gave the Republicans the opportunity to be in the majority for the first time in 40 years. We said that we were going to meet the challenges, we were going to balance the budget, we were going to cut taxes for the middle class, that we were going to reform welfare, and, of course, pay down the national debt. I am proud to say that over the last 5 years, we have accomplished many of those goals, in fact, every one of them. We balanced the budget for the first time in 28 years; we cut taxes for the middle class for the first time in 16 years. In fact, 3 million Illinois children benefit from that $500 per child tax credit. The first welfare reform in a generation has reduced our Nation's welfare rolls by one-half, and we overhauled the IRS and paid down $350 billion of the national debt. Those are great changes.…”