Political Quotes

“I would make this distinction, and in the case of HUD, I am more critical, because we had for 8 years a Secretary of HUD, appointed by Ronald Reagan, who was dishonest and incompetent, in combination. I do not think that is the case here. I do not think people had the kind of abuses and criminality here. I know they did not. But what we had was they gamed the system very effectively. They were able to not have to spend it. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Texas said it turned out they did not need to spend it. They were able to save $4 billion. And they got the ability, after authorizations, to reprogram that and reuse it so they were able to spend more in other areas, since they did not have to spend as much in the first area. Given the commitment we hear about deficit reduction, it is striking that almost none of that undiscovered, unspent money went for deficit reduction.”