Martin Hoke: “we come back fresh, relaxed; refreshed in the spirit of good will, working together, feeling good; feeling good about…”

“we come back fresh, relaxed; refreshed in the spirit of good will, working together, feeling good; feeling good about having been away, frankly, away from the partisan ship, away from the negativity, away from the acrimony. And we come back with the high hopes for balancing our budget, for bringing together the things that the American people want. I am reminded of something that Abraham Lincoln said over 100 years ago, and I wanted to share it with the House in the hopes that it might encourage my colleagues to bring this spirit in the next 100 days. He said: ``You can't bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You can't strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You can't help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You can't further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You can't keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You can't build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.''”