Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, the only point that I want to make is I think we all agree here that drug courts can be very effective. In my community, the city of Cincinnati in Hamilton County, we are just getting under way with the drug court. I fully support the drug court. I supported the gentleman from North Carolina's proposal that we make, clearly in the language in this bill, the drug courts, the money can be used for drug courts; we all agree on that. Where we differ is that the gentleman from Maryland would like to put another billion dollars of tax dollars to be spent. If we are going to actually move toward a balanced budget amendment, we have to be very careful, and for that reason I oppose an additional billion dollars. I also think that we should not earmark for particular programs. I think the local communities know best what works in those communities. For that reason, Mr. Chairman, I think we ought to give the flexibility to the local governments to decide how to spend those dollars, whether it is police officers, additional police officers, whether it is drug courts or whatever. Let us leave it up to the localities. I think they know better than the Federal Government does.”