Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, we keep hearing about all of the money for defense in this bill. Let me remind my colleagues that less than 2 percent of the $507 billion that goes into this bill is for defense. That is a pretty sorry trade-off. Less than 2 percent of all that is spent. What do we spend more money on? We spend $12.5 billion on foreign aid. We spend $19.4 billion on international financial institutions. There is a $94 million program to buy out the Bering Sea pollock fleet, as if that was of great national importance. There is $100 million for a new visitor's center right out front, and $103 million for our protection, not for our citizens' protection, but for additional protection for Members of Congress. As bad as what we know about the bill is, it is what we do not know that troubles me. Mr. Speaker, 4,000 pages of documents that the average Member of Congress has had less than 3 hours to study. And it is what we do not know that scares me to death. We know it creates new commissions, we know it repeals things like the commercial fishing industry, Vessel Anti-Reflagging Act, but it is the great unknown. I ask the American citizens, would you go to a lawyer and present him a contract for his advice and his guidance and when it comes time for you to sign it he says, but by the way, I did not read it.…”