Phil Gramm Quotes

It’s not fair to say that people who work with their head or with their hands ought to pay taxes, but people who earn their living with capital ought not to.

I have the most reliable friend you can have in American politics, and that is ready money.

Quite frankly, I think nothing could do more to immediately bolster national security then enabling us to produce more oil and gas here at home at a price consumers could afford.

I have to tell you that the innovation and the technology and the entrepreneurship of the world still lies in the United States of America.

I said we are in a mental recession. We keep getting the steady drumbeat of bad news… it’s become a mental recession. We don’t have measured negative growth. That’s a fact, that’s not a commentary.

There’s one form of bigotry that is still acceptable in America – that’s the bigotry against the successful.

I believe I am more conservative than Bob Dole; I believe I am more committed to fundamentally changing American government than Bob Dole.

Granting amnesty to people who broke the law penalizes the millions of people who are waiting to come to America legally.

Half the world does not know the joy of wearing cotton underwear.

Government is not the generator of economic growth; working people are.

I’m carrying so much pork, I’m beginning to get trichinosis.

Balancing the budget is like going to heaven. Everybody wants to do it, but nobody wants to do what you have to do to get there.

I don’t accept defeat as final. Only death is final – and even then I hope for a reprieve.

There are a lot of things you can say about the Bush tax cuts, but you can’t say they didn’t work.

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

I would be the last person who would say immigrants are not important to America.

The genius of the American system is that through freedom we have created extraordinary results from plain old ordinary people.

I love Texas because Texas is future-oriented, because Texans think anything is possible. Texans think big

Half the world does not know the joys of wearing cotton underwear.

I’d rather go to the dentist… but I’m going.

The cap-and-trade plan is more market driven than anything else. If you want to discourage carbon use, you have to make it more expensive, but what is crucial is that this be a worldwide program that includes China and India.

We’re the only nation in the world where most of our poor people are fat.

I think in the end we will have negotiations with the House. They don’t have any incentive for a long, drawn-out trial. We’ll have negotiations with the White House. Despite all their threats they are going to have a prolonged defense. The reality is they are the driving force behind getting this over quickly.

…we will not grant amnesty to illegal aliens in this Congress or, hopefully ever again. We did that once. Everybody said it was a one time deal. We were to never do it again. The problem with doing it was we reward people who violated the law. We reward people who came into the country illegally.

You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline

Every technological advance we’ve made in the 21st century and throughout the 20th has come from the United States of America.

Running for president must be like having babies. You have to forget what it was like the last time before you want to do it again.

I look at subprime lending and I see the American dream in action.

It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Sen. McCain on important economic issues facing the country. That kind of distraction hurts not only Sen. McCain’s ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country’s problems; it hurts the country.

The American story is a story of immigration. I would be the last person who would say immigrants are not important to America.

We’re going to keep building the party until we’re hunting Democrats with dogs.

I did not come to Washington to be loved, and I have not been disappointed.

Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.