Political Quotes

“I am terribly sorry, but I just do not agree. I do not think they understand that their program is seed money and, after a few years, it evaporates, it disappears, and the local unit of government is left to absorb all of the coats. I do not think they are thinking in those terms, but it is a fact that it is virtually illusory. We are talking 20,000 policemen, fully paid for, not 100,000. Those figures have been worked out, and they are not too obscure. The fact is we have a program that is animated by the philosophy that local government knows its problems and how to deal with them. All wisdom does not reside in Washington. Now to call it super pork is really to insult thousands of local officials who must face the same taxpayers we face only in a more immediate fashion. They come out to the meetings and eyeball these people. There is going to be supervision over how its spent through the U.S. Attorney General's office having a program of oversight, and so it just seems to me a little trust, a little faith, a little humility, that we do not know it all, that the people in the front lines do know it all, and let us give them the resources. Now some say, no more policemen, that they do not need policemen. Maybe they want technical help; maybe computers are what they need; maybe prosecutors; maybe jails; maybe policemen. But let them make the call, not from here hundreds or thousands of miles away in Washington.”