Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we will have this afternoon a vote in the Budget Committee, of which I am ranking Republican, on the nomination of Heather Higginbottom to be President Obama's deputy budget director at the Office of Management and Budget. OMB is a very critical part of the administration of any American government. OMB is the agency that controls, on behalf of the President, the lust of all agencies and departments to get more money for their budgets. They send up their requests. OMB is the control point for the President. He cannot sit down and negotiate every single dispute over funding. OMB handles that, controls it. If there is a real loggerhead debate between Cabinet officials and OMB, they can go directly to the President, and the President will decide it. But most times overwhelmingly decisions are made in OMB. It is that institution that is critical to contain the growing spending we have. It is a very important position. I supported the appointment of Jack Lew for Director. He had been OMB Director under President Clinton. He was said to be the one to get credit for balancing the budget. I do remember that the House Republicans under Newt Gingrich fought over spending for months and years. Actually for a short period of time the government shut down. It looks as though it didn't destroy America. We are still operating. But they fought, and they balanced the budget. So Mr. Lew was there during that period of time. Certainly he deserves some credit.…”