Political Quotes

“Today, we discussed at length the war in Iraq. And that's probably the most important issue facing America today, and I'm glad we had that very thorough debate. But one of the things that's very, very important that we're not focusing enough attention on is transparency in government and the amount of money that we're spending and the taxes that are going to be raised. When this new Speaker and the majority came into power, they said this was going to be the most transparent House in the history of the country, in all respects. And just 2 weeks ago, the majority wanted to start talking about a Slush fund rather than debating each one of the earmarks that should have been debated on this floor. And they were going to take that Slush fund money and go to the conference committee and behind closed doors decide how that money was going to be spent. The American people don't want that. The American people want to hear these issues debated, the amount of money being debated for special projects, so they know where their tax dollars are going and what the purpose is.”