Political Quotes

“Mr. President, a few years ago Tom Brokaw wrote a brilliant and important book called ``The Greatest Generation,'' and he described our fathers and grandfathers and mothers and grandmothers and what they did for this country by coming through the searing fire of the Great Depression, fighting and winning World War II, and then rebuilding our economy in the 1950s. We owe that generation everything we have. That generation sacrificed--I have to repeat that word ``sacrificed''--on our behalf. We are literally standing on their shoulders. We are driving on the highways they built. We enjoy our freedoms because of their sacrifice in World War II and in Korea. If Tom Brokaw writes another book about us, I don't know what it will be called, but it will not have ``greatest'' in the title. Instead of a compliment, it would be more of an epithet. We are leaving our children a gigantic national debt, crumbling infrastructure, and a changing climate that threatens their well-being and future opportunities in this country. I rise to talk about one of those factors; that is, infrastructure. I had a great insight when I was the Governor of Maine because every year Governors go to New York to go through a ceremony of genuflecting and kissing the ring of the rating agencies in order to try to get our States a high bond rating so they will have a low interest rate on their loans. I was all prepared for my meeting with the rating agencies.…”