Political Quotes

“before coming to Congress, I spent 7\1/2\ years as a criminal court judge in Tennessee trying the felony criminal cases. I certainly favor tougher sentences, particularly on repeat and violent offenders, but the first day I was judge I was told that over 98 percent of the defendants in felony cases came from broken homes. I went through thousands of cases, and over and over again I would read, ``Defendant's father left home when defendant was two and never returned; defendant's father left home to get pack of cigarettes and never came back.'' Several weeks ago, Senator Moynihan held some hearings in New York City. The headline in the New York paper the next day said, ``Moynihan: It is not Poverty, Stupid, it is the Family.'' We will never do anything real and meaningful about crime until we at least slow down or start reversing the breakdown of the family. How do we do that? By decreasing the size and cost of Government. The average person today pays almost half of his or her income in the form of taxes. Most families break up over finances. We need desperately to lower the taxes in this country and leave the individuals and families of America more money so they can support themselves and their families in the way they need to. That will do more to fight crime than anything we could possibly do in the crime bill today. ____________________”