Political Quotes

“of course, we are here tonight talking about the success of one single piece of legislation, the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. We are indeed proud, and I think we have the individual stories to back it up, as well as the overall data. But it is all about job creation and moving people from welfare to a meaningful job, and meaningful participation in the American way. Some people have said, ``Well, Congressman, you have a lot of success stories. But actually, I think we could attribute that to the booming economy, not to the Welfare Reform Act.'' I think, actually, the statistics show and the experts have told us that a good portion of this success that we have been talking about so proudly tonight does come from the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. But also, I am happy to take credit, as a Member of this Congress for the last 7 rac{1}{2} ext{ years}, for the good economy that we have had, for the most part. Now, we have had a business downturn, which we are going to have in a free and open and market-driven economy. We are going to have that sort of thing. But I am proud of the tax reform and the tax reductions that I have twice been able to participate in as a Member of the United States House of Representatives. I am proud of the tax reduction that we enacted last year, the fact that we sent tax rebate checks back to millions of Americans to the tune of $40 billion, at a time when the economy was just beginning to slow down and we needed a boost there.”