Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for yielding. I want to congratulate the chairman, as the Speaker did, for a lifetime of dedication to children, to education, and to health care. He has been a giant in all three of those activities and, in fact, understands the relationship between all those activities. I also want to thank the ranking member for his work. I know that he's not for this bill, so we have a difference there; but I do not believe, as the previous speaker said on his side of the aisle, that he's not also for making sure that children have the proper nutrition and grow up healthy. We have a different perspective on how to get there. The Centers for Disease Control tell us that over the past three decades childhood obesity rates have tripled. Nearly one out of every five American children between the ages of 6 and 19 is obese. That is a national crisis. That is a national security crisis. That is a crisis that we owe morally, ethically, fiscally, and as a national policy to address. That doesn't just mean a lifetime of health problems for those children. It means a public health crisis that we all pay for. One of my favorite phrases is, Life is a series of alternatives, series of choices, but they're not free choices. Ted Agnew was elected Governor of the State of Maryland at the same time I was elected to the Maryland State Senate, and he gave a speech on the east front of the capitol of our State in Annapolis.…”