Political Quotes

“Let me follow the remarks of the Senator from Oregon by saying that I have spent a lot of time on the issue of Government waste. In this body and also over in the House of Representatives I have voted continually to cut and cut and cut. I will continue to do that. The recent rating that came out rating Members' proclivity to favor cuts shows I rank number five on this side of the aisle in the U.S. Senate, in voting to cut spending. I have spent about 2 years working on a waste project, identifying $83 billion in waste that we can target to reduce Federal spending. So I do not take a back seat to anybody on the question of whether we should cut spending. Of course we should. We ought to continue spending on things that work and cut spending on things that waste. My concern is, it is all too easy not only to join but also in some cases lead, those who want to create an impression that the Congress is a real cesspool of excess. There are plenty of blemishes, plenty of problems, plenty of things wrong with Congress. But we actually have fewer people working in the legislative branch today than we did in 1980.”