Political Quotes

“Let me be clear right away. We have got great Federal workers. They care; they are patriotic; they work hard, but we have got a few that are bad apples. We have got to give the tools necessary to the leadership within the administration to do what is right and, if necessary, allow them latitude to let those people go. We voted on a similar bill years ago before I got into Congress. We gave this right and authority. We gave it to the IRS. Guess what, the IRS has the best tax compliance in all Federal Government--who would have thought. I was pleased to see that Congressman Steny Hoyer voted for that piece of legislation, that Congressman Elijah Cummings voted for that legislation. We want to take that same power, that same right that we gave the IRS years ago because it worked--it worked--and we want to give that to the other departments and agencies. Now, there are a lot of exceptions; there are a lot of ways to get out of this, but the basic principle is true. One, Federal workers do a better job of paying their taxes than the general public, and we should pat them on the back, and we should recognize them for that; but, two, when you do have a few bad apples, you have got to allow leadership the ability to let those people go if they continue to thumb their nose at the system and the taxpayers. We just heard testimony from the DEA: I can't fire anybody, even though they were engaged in some very nefarious activity.…”