Quotes About Policy

There is no war on coal. Period. There are more coal jobs and more coal produced in Ohio than there were five years ago, in spite of the talking points and the yard signs.

I have one yardstick by which I test every major problem - and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?

The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.

All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.

What I'm not saying is that all government spending is bad. It's not - far, far from it, but there is no free lunch, as a former colleague of mine used to say. There is no public tooth fairy. Father Christmas does not work on the Treasury staff this year. You can never bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble.

And so our goal on health care is, if we can get, instead of health care costs going up 6 percent a year, it's going up at the level of inflation, maybe just slightly above inflation, we've made huge progress. And by the way, that is the single most important thing we could do in terms of reducing our deficit. That's why we did it.

But let me perfectly clear, because I know you'll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.

I think 2017 is going to be the year of the grand return of the nation-state, the control of borders and currencies.

Taking Big Bird away from our five year olds, lunch money away from our ten year olds, job training programs away from our fifteen year olds, and college loans away from our twenty year olds is a disgrace.

If our focus in immigration reform is exclusively on high-skilled or STEM immigrants, where do the rest of the millions yearning to join our ranks fit in?

Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.

Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That's why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.

The minimum wage is something that F.D.R. put in place a long time ago during the Great Depression. I don't think it worked then. It didn't solve any problems then and it hasn't solved any problems in 50 years.

Licences to have babies incidentally is something that I got in trouble for some years ago for suggesting even in Canada that this might be necessary at some point, at least some restriction on the right to have a child.

One bipartisan policy tradition is to deny Americans the use of our own resources.

There's a long bipartisan tradition of civil rights enforcement.

If you have a traditional view of economics, you're probably thinking of Ben Bernanke making Fed policy, or the guys creating financial derivatives at Goldman Sachs.

Governing through federal ultimatum grates against our history, traditions, and, most importantly, our Constitution.

Traffic is about drugs. As detailed a portrait as I can muster about what is happening in the drug world, from top to bottom, from policy to how things move on the street.

The Protect America's Schools Act is not the only answer, but it is a positive step forward in preventing tragedies.

A rapidly expanding Syrian refugee policy could create conditions for domestic tragedy.

There is something deeply wrong with a political culture which only wants to talk about incarceration in the aftermath of a tragedy.

It would be a tragic mistake for Congress ever to adopt any public or tax policy which encourages mothers to assign child care to others and enter the labor force.

Striking down the Affordable Care Act would be a tragic setback.