Political Quotes

“Absolutely. You know, because you take a look at a State like Michigan, and I think it is probably the same in Missouri, and you take a look at the State and you say, well, my State this year is starting the year off with--or they are looking at their next budget year and they are saying we are going to have somewhere between a $1.2 and a $1.4 billion deficit for the next budget year, which they got to get done later this calendar year. And you look at it and say, well, you got a $47 billion budget. You know, finding $1.2, finding $1.4 billion in savings, you know, 2, 3 percent? That shouldn't be that hard. And then you start looking at the reality and say, well, out of that $47 billion, 19 of it is direct money from Washington, D.C. All right. Well, that is off the table. Then you take a look at it and say, well, but you know, with that highway money we get that is part of that $19 billion, it requires that we have the State match. And this money that we got for K-12, you know, that comes from No Child Left Behind, it controls some of the spending of the rest of the budget. And you start looking at it and saying, well, now all of a sudden I have got a $1.2 or $1.4 billion deficit and I have got maybe $10, $11 billion that I can work with. And it is like, no, there are efficiencies that we can find in all of those areas if that money never left the State and we were given the authority.…”