Word: webers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...WEBER: As a Republican, I obviously disagree. Divided government is one of the central problems of our time. I know exactly what goes into the Bush Administration's thinking processes when they decide not to take a strong leadership role on something -- economic growth, say, or welfare. They look at the numbers in Congress and correctly decide that they are unlikely to get a legislative product they can live with. I would like to see them get into the fight anyway. I think it would probably be helpful, both to the country and to my party...
...WEBER: Let me make clear that even though I think divided government is a very serious problem, we desperately need an agenda-setting campaign. The Bush people ought to resist the temptation to have just a symbolic or gimmicky campaign -- Willie Horton or something like that...
...WEBER: We are in a decaying spiral of public confidence. The public does not trust the institutions; they don't trust the political parties. It used to be, "I hate the Congress, but I love my Congressman." Now they've decided they hate their Congressman, too. Having fully discredited the parties and the institution, now we're discrediting the individuals. I'm not by nature a pessimist. I like to think that our system works and is going to right itself. But I see it decaying. I don't know what comes next after we have this tremendous cleaning...
...WEBER: If we vote to raise congressional pay, the press galleries are filled. Have a serious debate about the deficit or defense, and we're lucky if two or three reporters cover...
...WEBER: I had a reporter ask me the other day if I wasn't optimistic on the budget problem, because more and more candidates are talking about restraining entitlement growth. And I said, "Maybe in a very small way, but, unfortunately, that's what the candidates say -- 'entitlement growth.' " When they speak at the Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis, very few of them translate those abstract words into "freezing Social Security" or "restricting Medicare eligibility." In Congress we don't get to vote on the abstraction. We have to vote for or against actual programs...