Political Quotes

“I applaud my colleague, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), for offering this amendment. I think what the issue that we are debating about is priorities. I believe that every Member in the House wants to see the United States have a very strong national defense. But we want to make sure that that national defense is cost effective, because there are other needs in this country. No Member of the Congress ever wants to see a service person killed in action. And we want to protect them the best way that we can. But similarly, I would hope that no Member of the Congress wants to see an elderly person die because they cannot afford prescription drugs, wants to see a child end up in jail rather than college because that child is not getting adequate elementary education, wants to see an American veteran sleep out on the street because the VA is underfunded, wants to see a veteran of World War II not get the health care they need in a VA hospital. I do not think any Member wants to see that happen. But we have to make choices. And some of us say, enough is enough. When we talk about increasing military spending by $22 billion and we talk about greatly outspending all of our enemies combined and then we add NATO to it and another $200 billion, how much do we need? We have middle class families in this country who cannot afford to send their kids to college. Should we not be addressing that?”