Political Quotes

“I of course want to begin by commending the chairman of the subcommittee for his leadership and sincerity to bring about changes in bad policy and public housing. I also want to commend the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy] the ranking Democrat who, as the gentleman from Maryland pointed out, though we sometimes disagree, we know he is sincere and appreciate that. Mr. Chairman, when we look at public housing today, we want to look at it frankly and be honest about who suffers the most in public housing today, and that is the little children. It is the children who reside in public housing who are the victims of today's current policy. Fortunately, under Chairman Lazio's leadership, we have legislation now before us which brings about real solutions. I grew up in the shadows of the Chicago Housing Authority, growing up in the suburbs in a rural area to the southwest of Chicago. On the nightly news we saw tragedy after tragedy that occurred as a result of current public housing policies. Thousands if not millions of dollars bled from the system by politicians, lawyers, and consultants. Politicians wanting to keep people concentrated for political purposes in certain neighborhoods. And, of course, the State street corridor is the best example of a problem where we have 10,000 residents, miles long, one block wide, living in an area with 99 percent unemployment. Mr. Chairman, current public housing policy is a failure.”