You have got to clean your own house first before you tell other people that they aren't doing it right.
Power tends to protect itself merely to maintain its own status and control. Principle gives up power for the sake of creating the best public policy.
If you push down that pyramid of power and spread out the base, every member gets a chance to file their bill and have it heard and file their amendment and have it heard, as opposed to the system that we have now, which closes out, closes down bills, limits debate, and so forth.
My whole deal is I want to have a principle-based, member-driven caucus.
We have a spending problem, not a taxing problem. The less we spend, the more jobs we have the potential to create.
When you wait to the last minute, you rush to get things done, and the closer you get to the deadline, the less options you have.
We have a lot of talented people in this Congress, and we can avoid a lot of unintended consequences if we just included them.
All I want to do is get back to a principle-based Congress.
Let's take up the most important issues first. Let's take up the reauthorizations first; let's take up the appropriations bill first, not wait until four days beforehand - no one has mentioned anything, and, all of a sudden, somebody looks at their watch and says, 'Hey, in four days, the government is going to run out of money.'
I'm not an angry kind of person. What I am is a principled person.
I'm a homing pigeon. When I'm in Tallahassee, I give everything I have to being, hopefully, the best legislator I can be. When I'm home, I'm home. I try to not do legislative stuff. That brings a balance to life.
You lay out a plan and - say a three-year plan or a two-year plan - and say, 'This is what we can do. We can do the transportation packages, like the highway bill and the water bill, and we can do some of these other areas - a farm bill - whatever it is, we lay out a schedule, and we put that committee to work to do that.'
John Boehner is a friend.
Are we going to just change the personalities in the speakership? Or are we going to fundamentally transform the way we do business here in Washington, D.C.?
Once we relieve them from sanctions, their economy opens up, and they can sell oil and pistachios and whatever else they sell around the world. That was why Iran needed a deal. Everyone knows they fund terrorism around the world. Having that extra money will add a lot of problems and create a lot more hot spots.
Nothing happens in any legislative body that's not purposeful.
Every member in Congress has a seat, and they deserve a seat at the table.
I'm going to be as sincere as I can in delivering the message I think is right. If people agree, great, and if they don't, I did my best.
I have a problem with the way the House is run. I believe that a few people at the top of a pyramid of power have controlled this place for a long time.
The voters in District 8 shared our vision that Washington is broken, and we're going to go up there and fix it.
