Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his comments. It doesn't get--we've been here 59 days, in this Congress. Not a single bill has been brought to this floor which will deal with the sequester, not one. As a matter of fact, we've only met 17 of the 59 days this year. So my friend laments the fact that the sequester is going into effect and he talks about bills that, as he didn't deny, they're dead and gone. The Senate can't take them up. So many folks want us to read the Constitution of the United States. I'm for doing that. It's Article I that gives to the House, as the leader, I'm sure, knows, the responsibility to raise revenues and to pass appropriation bills. It's the House that needs to initiate legislation, and we guard that pretty jealously. We guarded it--we just passed VAWA. There was a lot of discussion about VAWA having--in the last Congress, that passed overwhelmingly, was delayed because, very frankly, they had some money effect in that bill. We said that was subject, therefore, to objections on our side. We haven't met very often, and when we do meet, the only real bills we pass are passed in a bipartisan fashion, as happened today. And when we talk about balance--and I get very frustrated. Take somebody else's money. Did you want to take it out of your pocket?…”