Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, if the States were doing everything right, we would not have all this furor about truth-in-sentencing. The truth of the matter is, 10 years does not mean 10 years; 15 years does not mean 15 years. The public thinks it does, but they are learning that it does not. We are trying to use a concept that is alien to some people in this Chamber. It is called incentives. It works in economics, and it works in crime fighting. The gentleman from Massachusetts said somehow a pall of depression falls over us Republicans when the Democrat administration does something right. I would just tell the gentleman: NAFTA and GATT. When the administration does something right, and it does--it does--they get support from this side of the aisle. But the romance with categorical grants has been on their side. I recall the last crime bill, the so-called omnibus crime bill, if you wanted to get a piece of that $50 million, you had to have midnight basketball. You had to shoot free throws, because that was a Federal program and you had to participate. We were telling communities. ``If you want some of this money, then here's a program where you can get it.'' But what we are doing here is saying here is money to build prisons. If you want to build prisons, let we have truth-in-sentencing. That is a simple exchange. It is not asking too much. I think this is what the public wants.”