Political Quotes

“I come to address the House, the Congress of the United States. We are the wealthiest country in the world. We are the most powerful country in the world. We have one program that focuses on improving the lives and life chances of people in our lower-income communities across our country. It's called the Community Development Block Grant. It was created under Republican President Richard Nixon in 1974. Since its inception, we have invested about $132 billion in some 1,209 communities across our country. Over the life of this program, we have invested about the same amount as we took to build the International Space Station. In 1 year, we spent approximately the same amount in Afghanistan. This year, we are spending $3.3 billion on the Community Development Block Grant, which is the lowest amount in the history of our Nation. What the majority, my friends on the other side, are proposing in this appropriations bill is to spend the least amount ever on this effort. They want to slash it from $3.3 billion to $1.6 billion. Now, it's not that they are mean-spirited. It is because the allocation for this bill is fatally deficient. It is too low to meet the needs of the greatest country on Earth in so many respects that we could be here all day in pointing out the deficiencies, but I want to focus on just this one program. Because it was created by a Republican President, it operates in the most, I think, approving way for those on the other team.…”