Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his comments; but I do want to observe that the President of the United States has offered a budget which eliminates the sequester and gets to a budget deficit reduction and fiscal sustainability in an alternative way which we think is much more positive. I would also remind the gentleman that Chris Van Hollen, the ranking member of the Budget Committee, offered an alternative which gets rid of the sequester, which all sides agree is an irrational process in that it cuts the highest priority and lowest priority the same. The sequester, as the gentleman knows, was put in a bill to force action with the specific belief and premise that the sequester was so bad, so irrational, so lacking in common sense, so negative in its impact that it would never be adopted. Sadly, it was adopted. I want to say also that the gentleman and a lot of his colleagues like to mention that this is the President's suggestion. With all due respect, Jack Lew brought it up with Mr. Reid, and everybody has read about that in Mr. Woodward's book. He brought it up, however--and the gentleman probably recalls this--days after sequester, as a policy, was included in the Cut, Cap, and Balance bill for which 229 Republicans voted for as a policy. I want to tell the gentleman just for his future information, on our side, we are opposed to the sequester. We want to see the sequester changed. Mr. Van Hollen not only offered a budget, but he offered four amendments.…”