Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, this amendment will decrease funding for the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS by $505 million and move it to the spending reduction account. AIDS is a horrific disease. We have lots of horrific diseases in our country, but we don't have programs for everybody that gets a disease. We don't have programs specifically for people that get cancer, for example. We have programs for AIDS because when AIDS was first spreading, people didn't understand it. They thought it would spread like a contagion, that you could get it just because you lived in the same housing development as someone else. Now that we properly understand AIDS, we don't have the same kind of denial of access to housing for people. We do have need-based housing, and there are people with AIDS who have needs, and some of them currently are even being housed under this program. The reality is they would still have access to housing if they are qualified for need-based assistance just like every other American. It doesn't eliminate the safety net but eliminates the special, favored treatment. Why is that important? Well, look. We have to cut something. Ronald Reagan famously recognized that the closest thing to eternal life we will see on this Earth is a government program. There is always a new program, but there is never a time to get rid of an old program. This program just continues on without real authorization. It just keeps getting appropriated. It is time. It is time to take it away.…”