Political Quotes

“I represent a very diverse district. I represent part of the City of Chicago in the south suburbs and Cook and Will Counties. And when one represents a diverse district of city and suburbs and country, he listens, he listens for common concerns and common ideas as he works to represent those communities. And I find one very clear message from the city dwellers and the suburbanites and the farm folk in the district I have the privilege of representing, and that is that the folks back home want those of us who have the privilege in the Congress to work together to solve the challenges that we face and to put forward real solutions. I am proud in the last 4 years this Congress has responded to that request of finding solutions. And we have some real accomplishments we can all be proud of, accomplishments such as balancing the budget for the first time in 28 years, a balanced budget that is now projected to generate an expected $2.7 trillion surplus of extra tax revenue; a middle-class tax cut, the first middle-class tax cut in 16 years that is now giving three million children a $500 per child tax credit back home in Illinois; welfare reform, the first welfare reform in a generation that has lowered the welfare roles in Illinois by 28 percent; and IRS reforms, taming the tax collector, the first IRS reforms ever that now shift the burden of proof so that a taxpayer is innocent until proven guilty. That is all thanks to this Congress.”