Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise with deep concern about what the proposed Republican budget does--in real terms--to real families in this country. I am deeply concerned that my colleagues on the other side--in their ideological haze--seem to have lost sight of the real people whose lives will be affected by the choices we make. It seems to me that the Republican budget proposal fails to realize that budgets are not just about numbers. Budgets are about people-- their hopes, their dreams, their expectations for a better life for themselves and their children. They are about the promise of America-- the vision we have of safe, clean, vibrant communities in which to live and raise our families. Budgets are a reflection of our values, not--as the House Budget Committee chairman would have us believe--a faceless calculation of pluses and minuses just to get to an arbitrary number--regardless of the impact on families, seniors, students, and every community in this country. We all have a budget, every family has one, maybe not a formal budget, but we all have one. On the revenue side we have what we earn from gainful employment, investments, interest on savings. And on the flip side we have our expenses: our mortgage payment, groceries, utilities--and we have our contributions perhaps to our church or synagogue, donations to a favorite charity, a favorite cause. These are expressions of our personal values, just as the nation's budget is an expression of our collective values.…”