Political Quotes

“I thank Chair McGovern for yielding. Madam Speaker, I am going to start with a bit of an embarrassing admission. For a number of years, I avoided stepping on a scale because I was about 90 pounds heavier than I am now. Madam Speaker, eventually, I figured out that you can't really get a handle on things by ignoring them. So, occasionally, you have to step on that scale, and that is really the ethic that this bill embraces. It simply says that if we are going to get a handle on our long-term fiscal challenges and have an economy that works better for everyone, then we have to occasionally hear a clear statement of how we are doing and a clear statement of the Nation's financial realities from a nonpartisan, unbiased source. That is what a fiscal state of the Nation address would do. As the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress looked at proposals to improve the budget and appropriations process in the 116th Congress, all 12 members of the committee unanimously recommended this as an important reform. I would acknowledge that there was great bipartisan and bicameral support for this notion as part of the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform as well.…”