Political Quotes

“I would like to thank the good gentleman from California for organizing this time. Far and away the most common thing said to me over the last year has been: Dear God, why on Earth would you want to be in Congress, particularly when you have two little kids and Congress is such a mess? I will tell you, at every occasion I have responded the same way: It is because I got two little kids and Congress is a mess. I actually care about what kind of country they grow up in. I think if people who think that this is okay and sit on the sidelines, we are never going to fix it. I will tell you, it is strange to join an organization that, according to recent polling information, is held in lower regard than head lice. Having only been here for about 9 months, I have a pretty good sense of why. When I got here, Congress was in the process of enacting this policy of sequestration across-the-board cuts, which have had dramatic impacts in my neck of the woods where you have seen workers furloughed, cuts to critical agencies and critical services. In Kitsap County, where I serve, they have ended mental health outreach to senior citizens because of sequestration. We have seen impacts to our region's largest employer--the United States Navy. We have seen impact after impact. If that wasn't enough, we have gone beyond--we all remember the fiscal cliff. We are now at, like, the fiscal mountain range, where we go from self-imposed crisis to self-imposed crisis.…”