Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair. It was almost 25 years ago that I traveled around the country with my good friend, the senior Senator from Massachusetts. I was then on the Labor and Public Welfare Committee. He was, I believe, chairman of the Health Subcommittee. We were doing health hearings around the country going to hospitals, holding hearings. There is no question that his compassion for the poor is unrivaled in this body. Sometimes, however, that compassion is confused by the volume of his oratory and the velocity of his statistics. Volume and velocity are not necessarily accuracy. He uses the word ``cut, cut, cut.'' Only in this Government--not in any State government that I know--only in this Government do we use the word ``cut'' as follows: cut means we are going to spend less than we thought we were going to spend in the future, even though it is more than we are spending now. That is a cut. This would be a cut, to an average layperson. I am making $1,000 a month. I think I am worth $1,200 a month. I go to the boss and say, I am worth $1,200. And the boss says I don't have $1,200. I will give you $1,100. You do not tell your wife you got cut $200; you got $100 raise. It is not as much as you hoped but more than you are getting. I defy you to ask any average normal citizen in this country to define ``cut'' the way we define it. Having said that, we will take a look at the quantity of money we now spend.…”