Steve Scalise Quotes

House Republicans are the most powerful force for limited government, strong national defense, and economic opportunity that exists in America today. But it is not enough to just talk about conservative values.

- Steve Scalise

I think it's encouraging that President Trump is talking about strengthening our national defense, something he ran on again.

- Steve Scalise

In the face of unspeakable evil, our whole nation must respond with countless acts of kindness, warmth and generosity.

- Steve Scalise

If you had a job, and every day you're going back home and telling all your friends how horrible your job is and how horrible your employer is, after a while, they're going to start believing you. And then at some point, they're going to start questioning you and say, 'Why, if it's so bad, are you doing it?'

- Steve Scalise

Paying for disasters and being fiscally responsible are not mutually exclusive.

- Steve Scalise

A lot of individuals have had their personal information compromised, and then we've seen just about every corporation in this country hacked or attempted to be hacked by foreign countries.

- Steve Scalise

Under President Obama, the IRS formed a committee to aggressively go after churches and other religious organizations using the Johnson Amendment of 1954 to limit their free speech.

- Steve Scalise

How about we let the states be innovative on Medicaid and do much better and smarter things?

- Steve Scalise

There's no excuse for breaking the law.

- Steve Scalise

I understand from experience that unity is easy to call for, but it takes the right kind of leadership to achieve.

- Steve Scalise

Barack Obama destroyed the middle class. Whatever you want to say about his rhetoric, the rich got richer, but the poor got poorer, and the middle class got wiped out. That's really what Trump appealed to and inspired in the forgotten man.

- Steve Scalise

Dr. King challenged our country to fulfill the promises of liberty, equality, and justice prescribed in the founding of our great nation. Leading by example, he stressed the teachings of tolerance, service, and love, regardless of race, color, or creed.

- Steve Scalise

When you elected me to serve as your Whip, I committed to create an inclusive and open Whip operation - one that didn't just register your objections and move on, but instead actively sought you out and worked to build coalitions that enabled us to advance our agenda on some of the most controversial issues we have faced.

- Steve Scalise

As both Republican Study Committee Chairman and Majority Whip, I've made it a top priority to bring openness and inclusiveness into the legislative process so we can bring our dynamic conference together as we advance our agenda.

- Steve Scalise

Mike Pence, of course, is a governor with executive experience and doing well in a Midwestern state, but also served in Congress. I served with Mike.

- Steve Scalise

No oyster in the world tastes as good as a Gulf oyster.

- Steve Scalise

My theory has always been, if you take care of your business today, take care of the job you have at hand, whatever else comes down the road will be there for you.

- Steve Scalise

We're not going to let some unelected bureaucrats in Washington stop us from moving forward with our agenda, but at the end of the day, CBO is not the Holy Grail.

- Steve Scalise

We ought to have a platform to plan to save Medicare from bankruptcy.

- Steve Scalise

I was on the board of Teach for America. And we transformed a failed public school system in the City of New Orleans, probably the most corrupted and failed system in the country.

- Steve Scalise

I've been very proud of a lot of the work I've done in New Orleans.

- Steve Scalise

We ought to prioritize national disasters... in a fiscally responsible way.

- Steve Scalise

People want the Keystone pipeline built all across the country.

- Steve Scalise

The bottom line is, what are we doing to Obamacare? We eviscerate the law in our bill, and then we do things like expanding health savings accounts, which give families real flexibility. We reform Medicaid.

- Steve Scalise

It shouldn't just be Russia we're concerned about, because many countries that are not our friends have been hacking into American accounts across the board.

- Steve Scalise

The idea of strengthening health savings accounts... that bolsters the marketplace.

- Steve Scalise

For all the banging from the Left that, you know, 'They don't care about people with pre-existing conditions' - There was never a day where our conference was willing to leave people out in the cold.

- Steve Scalise

Barack Obama, he just sits out. He sits back; he criticizes everybody. He's got his professorial attitude, real condescending, as if he's got all the answers.

- Steve Scalise

A national carbon tax would devastate an already struggling American economy, force the cost of gas at the pump to jump even higher, and kill millions more jobs here at home.

- Steve Scalise

Many people who have insurance can't even use it because they have $10,000 or higher deductibles. This is something families are facing all across the nation. They've asked for relief; this was front and center on President Trump's agenda and our agenda in Congress, and we're moving forward on it.

- Steve Scalise

Look at what happened in the 1990s: when they balanced the federal budget, it was through growth in the economy and controlling spending.

- Steve Scalise

When everybody goes into their separate corners, it's just real easy to demonize the other side instead of saying, 'Okay, how can we come together and figure out how to get done what's important for the country?'

- Steve Scalise

When building a strong team, you need a strong leader.

- Steve Scalise

There was this mischaracterization that I ran for leadership to be the guy to get conservatives to vote for leadership. I said I would be a conservative voice at the leadership table.

- Steve Scalise

I don't want doctors and patients to be having to - having to literally ration care, take away that relationship by having the government come in and interfere.

- Steve Scalise

We shouldn't be bailing out insurance companies under ObamaCare.

- Steve Scalise

Medicaid is one of the most failed forms of health care.

- Steve Scalise

You want to talk about something that truly changes the game in this country, Medicaid is one of the most failed forms of health care.

- Steve Scalise

Over the years, CBO has been all over the board on healthcare. The only consistent point is they've missed the mark on different pieces. That's the nature of a scorekeeper.

- Steve Scalise

We're going to try to solve problems for everyday people.

- Steve Scalise

Especially in the whip operation, you're in constant contact with the members and their chiefs of staff, so having a chief who's approachable and reaches out to other chiefs so people know what's going - know what they're looking for in the policy that comes to the House floor - is incredibly important.

- Steve Scalise

The only thing that gets reported are the tragedies. But it rarely gets reported when somebody actually uses their Second Amendment right with a gun to protect themselves against a criminal.

- Steve Scalise

There are lot of issues we passed out of the House that have gotten not only a lot of Republican support - Tea Party and every group within the Republican conference - but even Democrats.

- Steve Scalise

I knew I was shot. Didn't know how bad it was. You know, in a weird way, your body kind of goes numb. You know, as bad as the wounds were - and obviously, I know now how severe it was - at the time, I guess my body had been shutting down a lot of the real pain.

- Steve Scalise

You gotta get into some confrontations sometimes to get the right result on the floor, but I think the bulk of our membership wants us to work out problems before a bill comes to the floor.

- Steve Scalise

You look at Rand Paul's bill. He's got refundable tax credits. So many other bills that are out there have had this. Dr. Tom Price, who is secretary of HHS under President Trump, he had an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill that had tax credits.

- Steve Scalise

Unelected bureaucrats in Washington should not have anything to do with the healthcare decisions made between a patient and their doctor.

- Steve Scalise

Our argument is everybody ought to be paying lower rates, and we ought to be focused on growing the economy and rebuilding the middle class.

- Steve Scalise

We ought to make sure that people coming here ought to be vetted and that we secure this federal border.

- Steve Scalise

There was a very strong bipartisan coalition in Congress under President Bill Clinton that passed the Defense of Marriage Act. And you've had a majority of the states in this country that have strongly stated that marriage ought to be remain the union between one man and one woman.

- Steve Scalise

If you're holding a grudge against somebody over the battle you just went through, you might be working with them on the next bill.

- Steve Scalise

There's a general understanding amongst, I think, most people in this country that whether or not you have a preexisting condition, it's not your fault, and you shouldn't be discriminated against in healthcare policy.

- Steve Scalise

I think it's a shame that the day somebody hears about a shooting, the first thing they think about is, 'How can I go promote my gun control agenda?' as opposed to saying, 'How do I go pray and help the families that are suffering?'

- Steve Scalise

There are going to be times when we disagree with our leadership, but ultimately, we've got to work hard to pull our leadership to the right and to move a conservative agenda forward and unite as conservatives if we're going to get things done.

- Steve Scalise

My goal is to get leadership to bring more conservative policies to the floor; it's not the other way around to get conservatives to vote for something they don't like. It's to get a more conservative product, and we've actually delivered on a number of occasions there.

- Steve Scalise

We are not giving up on repealing and replacing Obamacare.

- Steve Scalise

Our founding fathers made no mistake when they included the right to peaceably assemble among the first tenets of democracy.

- Steve Scalise

Our Founding Fathers believed strongly in gun rights for citizens.

- Steve Scalise

We're strongest when we're united, and we're united when everyone has an opportunity to contribute their talents and ideas.

- Steve Scalise

If you're making enemies along the way, you're going to limit the ability for yourself to be successful in advancing your causes.

- Steve Scalise

So let's find a way to protect people differently than Obamacare, because Obamacare's answer was, 'Just make everybody pay more'.

- Steve Scalise

Who makes decisions for families across America? Should it be a family with their doctor, or should it be some unelected bureaucrat in Washington?

- Steve Scalise

We had eight years of Barack Obama depleting our military, ignoring a lot of the threats around the world.

- Steve Scalise

Any time you're working on big things, you're going to get criticized along the way.

- Steve Scalise

The president does not have the option of choosing which laws he will follow and which he will ignore.

- Steve Scalise

I like the House. The House is where you can effect the most change. It's such a fast-moving dynamic body compared to the Senate.

- Steve Scalise

I am strongly opposed to any form of amnesty, including, especially, executive amnesty.

- Steve Scalise

I'm not for amnesty. People must play by the rules. And border enforcement must come first.

- Steve Scalise

Most Americans get that there is a need for a safety net in our country, and we support that safety net.

- Steve Scalise

If Republicans are going in the wrong direction, I am still willing to stand up against them.

- Steve Scalise

I have families all the time in my district in southeast Louisiana sharing with me stories of double digit premium increases every single year.

- Steve Scalise

While we always strive to reach 218 with Republican votes, sometimes that is not possible with divided government, and the story of a bill that passed with 150 Republican votes is much more positive and assertive than the story of a bill that passes with 79 Republican votes.

- Steve Scalise

I opposed the bailout of banks and car companies.

- Steve Scalise

The thing that probably frustrated me and hurt me the most was when there were inaccurate stories written about me or stories that were written that were trying to imply or infer things that weren't true.

- Steve Scalise

Obviously, you cannot do full repeal of Obamacare without a 60-vote bill in the Senate, but you can surely gut the law and give people true healthcare freedom with 51 votes in the Senate.

- Steve Scalise

You can't say it's broken, but let's keep some of Obamacare. You have to start over.

- Steve Scalise

I had miracles. I had angels.

- Steve Scalise

At the end of the day, you are judged by your character. And look, I'm proud of my record of working to help people throughout my years of public service.

- Steve Scalise

I'm very proud of the Italian heritage of my great-grandparents, who came here from Italy, and how they helped be a part of the American Dream, and that's something we want to continue to make available to everybody who wants to come here.

- Steve Scalise

I'm prepared to continue doing what we need to do to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

- Steve Scalise

We want President Trump to have all the tools he needs to build the wall.

- Steve Scalise

We want to build a wall.

- Steve Scalise

I fought really hard to win a seat in Congress, and everybody else did, too.

- Steve Scalise

We want to say nobody should lose their health care.

- Steve Scalise

Let's lower costs for health care. Let's put patients in charge of their solutions.

- Steve Scalise

When you get into this line of work, you're in public office, you expect you're gonna have cheap shots taken at you. That's part of the process.

- Steve Scalise

You can't have one, two, three more picks on the Supreme Court go against our Second Amendment rights.

- Steve Scalise

We need to pass conservative policy. And we can only advance our values when we are united.

- Steve Scalise

People want smart energy policy.

- Steve Scalise

We can pass conservative policy that unites us.

- Steve Scalise

Mexico secures their border. Why shouldn't we be able to secure ours?

- Steve Scalise

I don't have any records from back in 2002, but when people called and asked me to speak to groups, I went and spoke to groups.

- Steve Scalise

The problem is not that there are too many guns. It's that there are people that will go out and break the law, whether it's a gun or some other weapon or a bomb.

- Steve Scalise

There are a lot of people in the Rust Belt who felt like, 'Nobody's concerned about me, and my shot at the American dream is going away.' We need to restore that.

- Steve Scalise

If you don't agree, present what you think is a better way.

- Steve Scalise

As all of us here have known, and as people all throughout the nation are witnessing, Gabby Giffords is a fighter.

- Steve Scalise

Next to the Bible, I think the Constitution is the most important document ever written.

- Steve Scalise

I said I reject any form of bigotry, bigotry of all kinds.

- Steve Scalise

Ultimately, what we want to do is see the president follow the laws.

- Steve Scalise

You want to prevent war, you talk, talk, but you also have to back it up with actions.

- Steve Scalise

I think people all across the country want us to secure the border and make sure that terrorists are not coming into our country.

- Steve Scalise

The states should have much more responsibility for infrastructure building.

- Steve Scalise

I've always been a conservative first.

- Steve Scalise

At the end of the day, I'm really proud of the work I did to help kids get an equal opportunity, and a lot of them have.

- Steve Scalise

Never give up on something you believe in.

- Steve Scalise