Mike Pence: “the headlines announcing one scandal after another have grieved the heart of the American people and have eroded public…”

“the headlines announcing one scandal after another have grieved the heart of the American people and have eroded public confidence in our national government's commitment to governing of the highest moral caliber. The Bible says that righteousness exalts a nation, so the converse must also be true. So Congress is preparing to fight for ethics reform, not because such scandals hurt our party but because they do hurt the Nation. But as we reform our rules of ethics we will do so with the understanding that these are but symptoms of the core problem. The real scandal in Washington, D.C., is runaway Federal spending. Fiscal and moral integrity are inseparable issues. So it is not enough to change the way lobbyists spend their money, Mr. Speaker. We must change the way Congress spends the people's money. Only by marrying budget reform and ethics reform can we hope to restore the confidence of the American people in the fiscal and moral integrity of our national legislature. ____________________”