Political Quotes

“I want to thank my friend, Mr. Van Hollen, for the work he's done. I want to rise in opposition to this focus on Federal employees. First of all, Federal employees have contributed $75 billion over the last 2 years towards helping us reduce the deficit--$75 billion. No other working American has been asked to do that. You treat Federal employees in this House as second-class working people. That's wrong. This is a 5 percent tax increase on Federal employees. Nobody else, nobody else do we ask--the richest people in America we don't ask to solve this deficit problem. But Federal employees, yes, a $75 billion contribution. And you don't blink an eye because it's easy, because we demagogue about government and, by association, we demagogue about bureaucrats used as an epithet. These are, as Mr. Van Hollen pointed out, people who protect our food, try to make sure that we can find cures for cancer, protect us from terrorism, guard our borders. That's who we're talking about. And we treat them as second-class citizens. That's wrong. It's wrong for our country, it's wrong for the American people, and it's wrong for us as an institution representing the government of this country. Ladies and gentlemen, reject this. I'm going to talk about other aspects of this so-called reconciliation bill at a future date.…”