Political Quotes

“Madam President, there are a million reasons why I love North Carolina, but one of them is, it is a State of 10 million people. Half those people live in urban areas. The other half live in rural areas. One in ten people in the State are veterans--a State that proudly claims having one of the fastest growing veteran populations in the country. When I go into the VA Committee and I look at what we have to do, I don't look at it as coming from an urban State. I don't look at it as coming from a rural State. In many respects, I think North Carolina is a microcosm of the Nation as a whole. When we look at some of the changes we want to make, what I hope we get out of this review is what to do with the 430 empty buildings that are as much as 90 years old that are owned by the VA. We may have to do basic maintenance on them, but they are properties that may have a historic value. Maybe we can convey them to the States and sell them and use the resources to plow back into quality care for the veterans. I can tell my friend from West Virginia that we share a mountain range together. We share a lot of cultures out in the western part of our State with West Virginia. There is no way on Earth that I would allow the VA to move forward on something I felt was going further away from providing quality care to any veterans anywhere in West Virginia, North Carolina, or any other rural area. On the one hand, we continue to say we don't have enough money for veterans.…”