Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We're currently dealing with a stalled economy, high unemployment, record budget deficits, and a debt that seems insurmountable. The challenge this Congress faces cannot be more clear. We must cut wasteful spending. We have to do it. We have no other choice. The Federal Government's spending to reduce our Nation's debt is paramount to our successful future. If we want to be the world's economic and military super power, we're going to have to change the way we do business in Washington, D.C. Now performance-based budgeting can be an effective tool to do just that. It can make clear what Federal programs are not performing and then spell out what Federal programs are duplicative in nature. But performance-based budgeting dictates that we identify the problem and enact a solution. It's not enough to just recognize there's a problem. Most all of us can step forward and say we're spending too much money. But the core question becomes, What are the changes that we're going to make? One of the challenges that we see within the bill is that it's not necessarily performance-based budgeting because the question becomes, ultimately, What are you going to do about it? It sets out to diagnosis a problem that we already know exists but does not necessarily follow through and prescribe a cure. We know that there are duplicative and nonperforming Federal programs. We know this.…”