Political Quotes

“I have come over here to the floor this afternoon believing that the subject was the President's almost certainly unlawful Executive order with respect to striking replacements. I have not understood the debate was going to be on the entire panoply of social programs piled up over the course of the last 20 or 30 or 40 years on the backs of the people of the United States. But I think comments on those programs do deserve at least a certain degree of response. Last week, many of the most eloquent proponents of a wide range of social and cultural programs voted to reject the constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. Many of them, at least, on the grounds that it should be the Congress itself which provides the necessary discipline to protect future generations from the consequences of our propensity to run up huge unpaid debts. And yet when it comes to any criticism, any reduction in even the growth rate of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of those programs, the proponents of fiscal responsibility are denounced as uncaring and indifferent to the needs of the American people. Perhaps that argument would carry some weight if the growth of those programs had been accompanied by greater opportunities, a higher degree of family stability, more unity--in other words, had been accompanied by some demonstrable success as a result of all of those spending programs. Of course, the contrary is true.…”