Paul H. Douglas Quotes

Those members of Congress who want to bring back pork to their districts should stand up proudly and be counted.

George W. Bush is a big spender…. When Congress sends up a bill with big. fat, crackling pork, he says, “Where’s the barbecue sauce?”

When I first came to Washington ... my charge was to cut the cost of government, to get government off our backs .... Thirty years later, the local newspaper says, "We want you to be a pork provider and we don't mean the farm kind.

There are hundreds and hundreds .... We've had the policy of protecting members and not exposing them, but we've taken a lot of abuse. There are members on the bandwagon of anti-spending, but they come and get their share.

If you think that my job is to rob the Federal Treasury on your behalf, you have voted for the wrong man

One person's pork barrel project is another person's wise investment in the local infrastructure.

You can't have it both ways. You can't tell me that you're taxed enough already, and that you want constitutional government and then in the next breath say, 'Bring me home some bacon.' The pig has been picked clean.

I'm not a professional politician. I'm a professional problem solver, and I believe we should cut the salaries of senators and congressmen 10 percent until they balance the budget. I call that conservative common sense.

I think it's the broadest source of dissatisfaction amongst Republicans, out-of-control spending.

The first pork-barrel bill that crosses my desk, I'm going to veto it and make the authors of those pork-barrel items famous all over America.

Conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute have criticized Bush for his big increases in spending, which far exceed those of the Clinton era.

You know, when Republicans were in charge, we doubled the debt. But, now, our concern is the Democrats are in charge and they're tripling the debt. So, really, our concern is that we want smaller government.

Now, so, if you want to blame someone for wasteful spending, the Republicans are in the majority.

Frankly, earmarking is not the problem. It is a symptom of the problem.

Spending is not caring. Spending is what politicians do instead of caring. Spending more does not guarantee success. Politicians like to measure spending because it is easier than measuring actual metrics of accomplishment.

Normally, when politicians talk about 'cutting the budget,' they really mean reducing the amount of increase. Actual spending goes up while the politicians claim to have 'cut the budget.'

The Pig Book

I view roads as a source of boundless patronage to the executive, jobbing to members of Congress and their friends, and a bottomless abyss of public money. You will begin by only appropriating the surplus of the post office revenues; but the other revenues will soon be called into their aid, and it will be a source of eternal scramble among the members, who can get the most money wasted in their State

Congressmen have their noses right in the trough and they're slurping it up for their districts at the expense of all the taxpayers.

We all have to pay when powerful members of Congress work to bring home the bacon.

The President is going around the country handing out so much pork that the Agriculture Department is going to have to station a meat inspector on board Air Force One.

Only in Washington do you hear a budget increase described as a cut.

If you refuse to acknowledge that there is any waste that can be culled from the military budget, you are a big-government conservative, and you cannot lay claim to balancing the budget.

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans loved the CBO because it tells the conservatives the thing that matters most to them which is how much is it going to cost taxpayers.

When I get to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork. Washington is full of big spenders. Let's make them squeal.