Kenny Hulshof: “I think the word that the gentleman used, ``optimism,'' I think that is probably what I heard most often from the folks…”

“I think the word that the gentleman used, ``optimism,'' I think that is probably what I heard most often from the folks that I had a chance to visit with. All the polls and surveys that these consultants and political pundits seem to find so important, I think truly when you get out of this place and you go back home and you listen to people in town hall meetings, you just open it up for discussion and you say, what is on your minds, I think some of the themes that you have mentioned are exactly what are the prevailing thoughts of most Americans, they do want less of Washington. I certainly trust the folks on Ducelle Avenue in Columbia, MO, my hometown. I trust them to make the decisions with their tax money a lot better than I trust the 435 of us that assemble here to decide how that money should be spent. They clearly, the folks back home, are appreciative of the fact that we were letting them keep money, their own money. This is not some sort of a rebate, that we are giving them back their money. It is allowing them to keep the money they have earned.”