Political Quotes

“I stand corrected, Mr. Speaker. I apologize for pointing that out. Mr. Speaker, I might add that on this bill alone, which is the real crime bill, if the President had not vetoed it, if he were sincere in his concerns that he expressed on television a little while ago, $14.6 billion would have been spent to fight crime, an increase of 20 percent over last year. Mr. Speaker, 25 percent more would have been spent on immigration initiatives, 57 percent more would have been spent on State and local law enforcement, 285 percent more than last year would have been spent on State criminal alien assistance, and 573 percent more would have been spent for violence against women programs. So let us not hear that the Congress is responsible for the shutdown. When the President chose to veto these bills, he knew it was going to hang us up over the Christmas holidays, and he know these 620,000 people would hit the bricks for the Christmas holidays. Our hearts go out to these people sincerely. We are sorry. We do not want to hold them hostage. But the President committed that he was going to meet our demands to balance the budget and save our children and our grandchildren from total economic catastrophe. He has reneged on that promise. He has not met us halfway. We need to override this bill so that we can put these people back to work. This is our opportunity. If you do not take advantage of this opportunity, then, in fact, do not talk about how people are being hurt.”