Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this month we have taken the historic steps toward requiring government to live within its own means by passing the balanced budget amendment. Today we have before us another tool to cut spending, the line-item veto. Many of us recognize that we live in tough times. Tough times require bold initiatives and bold leadership. H.R. 2 is a bold initiative that demonstrates bold leadership. I do not believe we can any longer hold the taxpayers hostage by including wasteful and at times silly spending in important legislation. Right now we put the President in the position of signing a good bill that has wasteful spending in it, or vetoing the wasteful spending, or vetoing a good bill to get the wasteful spending out of it. It is not a good situation. Mr. Chairman, H.R. 2 will change this. It does not give the President the authority to rewrite the budget or to spend money on something else, but it does allow the President to cut out pork barrel spending for one reason and one reason only, to reduce the deficit. That is what we want to get at. In my home State of New Jersey, like 42 other States across the Nation, we have a line-item veto for our Governor. It works in New Jersey, and it can work in the U.S. Congress.”