Dick Durbin Quotes

Politicians like to confuse congressional spending with earmarks. There is a difference.

I have never been opposed to earmarks.

There's no doubt about it, earmarks are not very popular. There are good earmarks and bad earmarks. The good earmarks are the ones I get for my district.

The Pig Book

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

Earmarks are almost always inserted by a member of Congress without any notice to other members, and without a chance for Congress as a whole to debate a particular earmark as they relate to national priorities.

The U.S. Senate does not allow legislative provisions to be included in appropriations bills, for much the same reason that most Americans are concerned about earmarks: it creates a slippery slope by which lobbyists and special interest groups can sneak provisions into large, must-pass legislation.

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?”

I hate to tell you, but it's not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill

Let me say this, to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little tiny, yes, porky amendments - the American people really don't care.

We know that appropriators will fight these cutbacks. But by eliminating earmarks, we can stop the horse trading that grows agency budgets.

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

There's a lot of politics over who gets the next allocation of Congressional funding.

In Congress, it's all pork, all the time.

I think I'm the last Democrat left in the Senate after Russ Feingold was defeated that won't take earmarks.

Sooner or later you have to reach down into that old pork barrel.

The best legislator is the one who votes for all appropriations and against all taxes.

I believe with $200,000 I can pass our bill. I do not think we can get any legislation this session for land grants or changing line of road unless we pay more for it than it is worth.

Earmarks are the gateway to corruption.

I'm sick and tired - and the American people are sick and tired - of the pork barrel spending.

We don't want the federal government to shut down. It is so inappropriate, and it is not respectful of the people that have sent us here to do our jobs.

The one word that no politician will ever speak, is 'enough.' Enough.

We absolutely need to reform the Congressional budget-writing process.

The message is pretty clear: Americans are sick and tired of the doubletalk coming out of Washington, of us going home and saying we're conservative and then coming up here and voting for 10,000 earmarks. We can't fool America anymore; the media is too good. They're reporting what we're really doing.

I think there's a lot to learn from Rockefeller on how to pass legislation.