Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, the Congress has forced me and D.C. elected officials to the outrageous position of opposing our own appropriation. No local budget has any business here, but the least D.C. residents are entitled to is respect. Once their elected officials have submitted a frugal balanced budget, D.C. went even further. The local budget has tax cuts that the majority likes and a surplus, signalling that the city has pulled itself out of fiscal crisis. I ask for a no vote, not because of attachments. The District has long lived with attachments, and I would not ask for a no vote because of attachments alone. The opposition of the District is based on new and unprecedented inroads into self-government for the first time in 25 years of home rule. First, the bill takes funds slated for urgent District priorities and redirects those funds. In addition, not only have attachments grown more numerous, now they are prepackaged in the bill before it even goes to subcommittee. Further, whatever the District wins, fair and square, along the way, does not matter. The Committee on Rules simply reverses the vote and reinstates defeated amendments. We lose even when we win. Yet the District now has a new management-oriented Mayor with a proven track record of fiscal prudence and a revitalized City Council.”