Dave Camp Quotes

Democrats believe, plausibly, that middle-class entitlements are instantly addictive and, because there is no known detoxification, that class, when facing future choices between trimming entitlements or increasing taxes, will choose the latter.

Democrats need to stand strong against any efforts to cut benefits to Social Security and Medicare.

It is foolish for Republicans to continue opening the door to job-killing tax hikes while Democrats refuse to explain how they propose to reform mandatory spending - mostly entitlements - that makes up almost two-thirds of the federal budget.

I opposed No Child Left Behind, I opposed the Medicare prescription drug bill, I opposed the Wall Street bailout. What the American people are starting to see is that Republican, Republicans on Capitol Hill get it and the Democrats, from the White House to Capitol Hill, just don't get it.

The central question is whether Medicare and Medicaid should remain entitlement programs guaranteeing a certain amount of care, as Democrats believe, or become defined contribution programs in which federal spending is capped, as Republicans suggest.

You've got the brain-washed, that's the Democrats, and the brain-dead, that's the Republicans!

The most biased people are the Democrats.

Democrats are fighting fire with fire. Our principled stance on Medicare and Social Security is absolutely no different than the Republicans' stance on no revenue increases without cuts.

The Democrats generally recoil from the subject of entitlements.

Republicans spend and borrow, Democrats tax and spend.

When you talk about entitlement programs, it's not just about - it's not about cutting those programs. It is about saving those programs. Those programs are on a path of fiscal unsustainability.

I'll let Democrats defend spending our grandchildren broke on entitlements.

Democrats cannot win elections without capturing the votes of independent-minded swing voters. And that is where writing off the Tea Party as a bunch of racist kooks becomes self-destructive. The Tea Party outrage over health-care reform, deficit spending and entitlements run amok is no fringe concern.

We elect Democrats to Congress to give us stuff. We elect Republicans to the White House so that we don't have to pay for it.

I don't dig Trump or follow what he has to say, but I find it fascinating that he's surfaced in the political arena. But I'm a Hillary supporter, and I don't go the Trump way.

I believe there are several conservative democrats who are prepared to join Republicans in opposition to measures that propose new entitlements and reparations.

Historically, Democrats have been far more united than Republicans when it comes to policy, ideology and public debate.

Where Republicans encourage popular myths about taxes, spending, and climate change, Democrats tend to stoke our fantasies about the sustainability of entitlement spending as well as about the cost of new programs.

Again, if I was going to call Romney and the Republicans stupid, I'm certainly not going to call the Democrats and President Obama stupid.

Now, most of the time I'm going to agree with the Democrats and disagree with the Republicans.

The Democrats want government to do the spending. Senator McCain wants families to do the spending.

I can tell you if you look at the polls, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, they do not think we should increase the debt limit.

One must remember that in the '70s, Democrats still grasping for Camelot were desperately pinning their hopes on Teddy while Republicans were doing everything they could politically to turn him into a punch line post-Chappaquiddick. And the idea of Ted Kennedy - rather than the actual man - dominated his political legacy through the early '90s.

There are two important things to remember about 'entitlements': They are hugely popular programs for a very good reason, and actual sensible 'reform' would mean improving them, not sacrificing them at the altar of 'fiscal responsibility.'

No one was elected to Congress because he or she promised to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.