Political Quotes

“Once again, this House is taking up a proposal that represents a direct attack on the will of the American people. Public financing for Presidential elections, which began in the 1970s, is one of the few opportunities where Americans are allowed to specify how they want their tax dollars spent. As Members of Congress, we are charged with representing the interests of our constituents. In this particular instance, however, we know precisely what the American people want. By voluntarily checking this box on their tax forms, more than 10 million of our fellow Americans have made their intentions explicitly clear. The Presidential Election Campaign Fund exists because individual Americans expressly opted to dedicate a portion of their taxes to that purpose. In January, House Republicans voted to ignore the explicit intentions of the American people and eliminate the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. Thankfully, the Senate heard Americans' call and killed the bill. And this year, millions of Americans again checked the box on their tax forms for calendar year 2010, once again, explicitly telling the government how they wanted their taxes spent. Ironically, our Republican colleagues cite their own YouCut website as a representative site, with at most, a few hundred thousand followers. They disdain 10 million citizens but revere the few. This is selective representation in its most rawest and worst form. The bill before us today, H.R.…”