Political Quotes

“According to the GAO in fiscal year ending 2004, 16 of 23 Federal agencies, and 19 of 24 in fiscal year ending 2005, according to the GAO, couldn't produce a clean audit. I wish I had made this up, but I didn't. It would be easier to stomach. But nothing is asking. So we filed a bill that says when the inspector general of any Department identifies either, one, an unacceptable audit, in other words they can't tell you what they did with the money; or, two, they identify in government talk a high-risk program, what that really means is a program that was enacted that doesn't work. Our bill says when either one of those two events occurs, Congress must hold a public hearing on that within 60 days so that the American people will have some means to find out just exactly what is going on in this town, because right now there are no hearings. There is no oversight. There is no subpoena power. There are no subpoenas being issued to call people in and say, give us your books and tell us what you did with the money. That is not happening here. It is understandable. It is politics and I understand that, but the American people deserve better than that. They deserve better than that, not just from the Democrats but from the Republicans as well. They ought to be demanding. Even though it is a Republican administration, it doesn't matter. We are a separate but equal branch of government charged with this responsibility. We ought to hold the executive branch accountable.…”