Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't do anything political on Sundays.
I was told freshman Republicans don't get their bills heard.
The key is - I'll say the key - number one, I pray every day.
I've never, in my whole 30 years in office, run a negative ad.
Nothing happens in any legislative body that's not purposeful.
The policy is one thing, but it's dictated by what the process is.
I'm not an angry kind of person. What I am is a principled person.
For most of my time in Tallahassee, I did a lot of transportation.
The principle is that every member needs to represent their district.
You take away the money from Israel? No. That's something we can't do.
My whole deal is I want to have a principle-based, member-driven caucus.
I'm the only person that has ever run a principle-based legislative body.
Every member in Congress has a seat, and they deserve a seat at the table.
I never talk about my opponent because I don't think it's my right to judge.
If principles don't determine what you are going to pass or do, then power will.
Power focuses on self-preservation; principle focuses on making ideas successful.
We've got to prove that we can lead, and I'm going to be all-in to help prove that.
What really promotes business in this country is liberty, not demand for information.
Parents like options when it comes to their children's education. And they respond to quality.
Power says if you are a committee chairman, your idea is good only because you have got power.
You have got to clean your own house first before you tell other people that they aren't doing it right.
My expectations are not in any future event. I would rather just be prepared for whatever might take place.
The voters in District 8 shared our vision that Washington is broken, and we're going to go up there and fix it.
There are amendments never offered, there are bills never heard, that are basically killed because of the process.
We have a spending problem, not a taxing problem. The less we spend, the more jobs we have the potential to create.
We're not even supposed to have a break in August if we have not passed the appropriations bills. It's in the House rules.
I would like to give evidence we can lead. And I think the only way we can do that is to unify the diversity of the party.
There's a picture there that people realize that, we stop helping Israel, we lose God's hand, and we're in big time trouble.
We have a lot of talented people in this Congress, and we can avoid a lot of unintended consequences if we just included them.
Do I like foreign aid? Sometimes, but not every time. Don't like giving money to our enemies, but I love giving money to Israel.
When you wait to the last minute, you rush to get things done, and the closer you get to the deadline, the less options you have.
I've been a speaker. I've been a majority leader. I've been a minority leader. Those are the sort of things I don't need any more.
We're a nation of immigrants - there's no question about that. But we're also a nation of laws. I think we have to honor both of those.
I'm going to be as sincere as I can in delivering the message I think is right. If people agree, great, and if they don't, I did my best.
I found a mistake in a rule. They addressed the wrong rule number... I pointed it out, did an amendment, and everybody was happy after that.
Some people have been talking about - every place I go, they bring up the issue of foreign aid. I go, 'You can't get rid of all foreign aid.'
I changed that system in Florida when I was the Speaker of the House - I was the Minority Leader; I saw for 16 years the way a power system works.
The only way to improve the GOP brand and make good public policy is to fix the process. This requires transforming the way Congress does business.
Power tends to protect itself merely to maintain its own status and control. Principle gives up power for the sake of creating the best public policy.
I have a problem with the way the House is run. I believe that a few people at the top of a pyramid of power have controlled this place for a long time.
During its first year of operation, Florida Virtual School had 77 students. The next year, it had 476 students; then 2,489 students the year after that.
I will say this: I've had more pro-life bills, I believe, I ruled unconstitutional - but I tried - than the entire total membership of Congress together.
Are we going to just change the personalities in the speakership? Or are we going to fundamentally transform the way we do business here in Washington, D.C.?
As a former minority leader who became the first Republican Speaker of the House in Florida since Reconstruction, I know that leadership is not an easy task.
You can think of all the things a Congress or a legislature does, and then you kind of overshadow that with the fact that a few people are going to make those decisions.
It's different from Washington in that in the legislature, you have to go home and have a job and actually make a living on your own. That gives you a different perspective.
I was Speaker of the House in Florida, first Republican speaker in 120 years. And I totally dismantled the way this House worked and turned it around to what I believe is right.
The process for producing public policy in Congress is flawed. The process itself kills policy ideas through the bypassing of the rules and procedural decisions that limit discussion.
I've never hidden my faith, but there are only a couple of issues I would die for. There are a few others I would dig my heels in on, and I've told my caucus that what they see is what they get.
Every member of Congress deserves a seat at the table to be involved in the process. I will continue fighting for this to become a reality in Washington, and will be running for speaker of the House.