Political Quotes

“people in the Midwest are making the tough and necessary choices to rebuild their own lives. Everything has been taken from them. They very much need our help right now, but they may not get that help. Why? Because Washington is playing another one of its cynical games. Senator Byrd was just right when he called the CR an automatic pilot. It would rescue us from the same public embarrassment they suffered from last year's Government shutdowns, but it also saves us from having to make the tough choices to balance our budget. The President has been to North Dakota and knows the need to provide assistance there as soon as possible, but he says that he will veto this bill because of the automatic pilot CR. He is right because it is bad policy, it is a gimmick. It enables us to avoid our constitutional responsibility to make budgets. And if we can lean back on automatic pilot and keep the Government going, how are we ever going to balance the budget? Let us not play Pennsylvania Ping-Pong. Why do we not invest the time in passing a budget resolution marking up the appropriations bills and getting the job done, not on automatic pilot, but doing the hard work of hard government. That is what we are paid to do.”