Robert H. Michel Quotes

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?”

Local groups demand that their representatives and senators bring home the "bacon" or else .... They want economy practiced on the other fellow but not on themselves.

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

If Washington were a factory, it would manufacture spending.

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

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

Well, I'm going to try to make a real difference in Washington's spending patterns.

Every debate in Washington is about how much to increase spending - a little or a lot.

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.

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

Putting the budget ahead of the policy is the wrong way to do it. It's too often the way it's done in Washington.

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.

Save the taxpayer's money by canceling the Ares 1 and V.

Memo to Congress: America's problem is not that government is too small. It's the spending, stupid!

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.

Only in Washington does a decrease in the proposed increase equal a spending cut.

As American families and businesses have been forced to tighten their belts, Washington has refused to do the same.

I'd be a lot more excited about eliminating earmarks if we reduced all of the spending by whatever the earmarks used to be, but nobody's, apparently, going to talk about doing that.

Look, I am not worried about Washington cutting too much spending too fast. I mean, the kinds of spending cuts we're talking about just right now are $100 billion out of a $3.7 trillion budget.

All we're getting from the Democratic majority in Congress and from this White House is more bailouts, more spending, more planned stimulus, more deficits and debt, and the American people have had it.

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

If we don't change the way Washington operates we're going to bankrupt our children and grandchildren.

The folks celebrating Jim Bunning are seeing him as an anti-government, anti-spending activist. But to embrace Jim Bunning is to embrace a strange record, if you really are a libertarian, if you really are a deficit hawk, if you really care about spending and responsibility.

The mentality in Washington is, 'Look what our government - what our government can do for the American people.' We've got to get away from that mentality, and realize it's too expensive. We can't afford it.

The American people are screaming at the top of their lungs to Washington, 'Stop! Stop the spending, stop the job-killing policies.' And yet, Democrats in Washington refuse to listen to the American people.