Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I appreciate the good words of my colleague from Kansas. He comes from a State where they understand that the role of the government should be limited. They understand the importance of living within your means, of not spending money you do not have. The Senator from Kansas has had a long and distinguished career in public life, but before coming to Washington, DC, to serve in Congress I suspect he also was a State legislator and my guess is that when he was a member of the State legislature in Kansas they had to balance their budget every year. I ask my colleague if he could perhaps shed some light on what his State of Kansas does, year in and year out, in order to get their budget balanced, to make sure they are not spending more than they take in. I think, as he pointed out, that is something for most families in Kansas--I would say for most families in my State of South Dakota-- those are decisions they have to grapple with all the time and we don't always have the luxury of being able to borrow. Most States don't allow it. My State of South Dakota doesn't allow that. Certainly rules in our States probably are not very conducive to saying we are going to raise taxes on people and on small businesses, which requires then we have to make our decisions on spending. I would, through the Chair, ask my colleague from Kansas, perhaps that might have been the way in which they went about dealing with their fiscal crisis in the past?”