Political Quotes

“I do not know what is happening to this institution. We work a couple of days a week. We cannot even get a budget resolution passed. It is overdue by months, and then we get these amendments that are really designed to eliminate the appropriations process, as though we have no capacity to apply judgment to the decisions that we have to make. Would it not be nice if the world was as simple as this? Let us just impose entitlement caps. Let us give it all over to the President, for example. We cite waste, fraud and abuse as though that is the problem. The Republican party controls the White House. They control the Senate. They control the House. Eliminate waste, fraud and abuse if that is the problem. The real problem is that we are not willing to make the tough decisions that have to be made, and now they are suggesting an entitlement cap. We have done an analysis of this entitlement cap. Over the next decade it would take $674 billion out of Medicare, $332 billion out of Medicaid, $100 billion out of Federal civilian retirement, $60 billion out of unemployment comp, $56 billion out of military retirement. I could go on and on, $45 billion out of veterans benefits, $11 billion out of TRICARE For Life, and on and on. This is not the way to run a government. These are important programs. Make the tough decisions.”