Roy Blunt Quotations

People with mental health problems are almost never dangerous. In fact, they are more likely to be the victims than the perpetrators. At the same time, mental illness has been the common denominator in one act of mass violence after another.

The Keystone Pipeline is one common-sense step in the right direction to help put more people back to work, reduce prices at the pump, and position our nation for greater energy security now and in the future.

It has come to my attention that Missouri state and local law enforcement agencies may be in need of additional resources due to the unanticipated costs of responding to the unrest in Ferguson.

I continue to be a strong believer in the life-saving importance of early detection, and I encourage everyone to be proactive about their preventive screenings.

I think the Tea Party has brought important issues to the table.

Somebody was telling me about the French Army rifle that was being advertised on eBay the other day - the description was, 'Never shot. Dropped once.

I'm confident that the commitment of the co-chairs of the Ferguson Commission - along with the work of other local leaders and the Missouri General Assembly - will have a very positive impact as this community works to move forward.

If we're going to talk about economic fairness, or about fairness, one of the most pressing economic issues facing families, seniors, and job creators in Missouri and across America is the strain of skyrocketing gas prices.

The shortest path to more American jobs is more American energy and more jobs that relate to American energy.

I'm very much inclined to be a next-chapter guy instead of a last-chapter guy.

Whether you're managing the finances for a household of one, a business of a thousand, or a government of several hundred million, there's no more important statement of fiscal intent you can make than putting together a responsible budget - one that acknowledges its available means, and makes a reasonable attempt to live within them.

Hey, well, I've been a pretty conservative member of congress.

It's not long-term debt if the money is immediately paid back.

The way to create jobs is to encourage private sector job creators.

You are more committed to things that you give money to - whether it is a church or a politician.

I explained to the president that I've been pleased with my conversations with the Attorney General and Civil Rights Division regarding their helpful understanding that they aren't taking over this investigation, but are conducting a parallel review of the events that led to Michael Brown's death.

I was the first Blunt ever elected to anything.

I'm interested in being part of a majority in the Senate.

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.

In the case of the Democrats' 2009 budget request, the statement of need could not have been articulated any clearer: We need more spending, historic new tax hikes, and greater control over the way American families live their lives.

There may be no issue that better illustrates the differences between Republicans and Democrats than energy. Consider it the 'all of the above' strategy for reducing gas prices, versus the 'all pain, no gain' plan for punishing those who emit carbon (like you).

Unfortunately, some in Washington remain tied to the dogma that responsible energy development cannot be achieved without taking a wrecking ball to the environment.

Government did get into the health care business in a big way in 1965 with Medicare, and later with Medicaid, and government already distorts the marketplace.

I was raised - my mom and dad were dairy farmers. Once you've made a decision to plant a crop for that year, you can't go back and undo that decision.

I've thought from the start that a parallel federal investigation into the death of Michael Brown is important. I also believe that our state and local elected officials have been given a responsibility by the people who they work for to get to the bottom of this tragedy.

Law enforcement officials have been candid in identifying ways officers could have handled the situation in Ferguson better, and I trust those recommendations will be helpful as we continue to count on them to protect us.

We did not arrive at this energy crisis overnight; it is a direct result of years of unreasonable, burdensome regulations and obstruction on the part of radical environmentalists.

The product we had for today wasn't quite where it needs to be yet,

What we do here is more important than who we are. We have an agenda to move forward here.

More than anything else, a budget request is a statement of national priorities; a clear enumeration of what our country needs to grow its economy and remain in the future the first-rate power it is today.

Members when it comes time to vote often have to balance where they are on one issue with where they might be on a handful of other issues, ... I'm not prepared to give up on ANWR yet.

I don't know that we would drop the food stamp cuts.

I don't believe anybody is opposed to refining this product in an appropriate way, ... We're having a significant discussion with our members.

If anybody can count votes in the House, I can count votes in the House.

We're open to doing what we need to do to achieve the highest number of savings that 218 people are willing to make happen, ... Now we'll see if the membership is pleased with all the parts of that, this will undoubtedly not be exactly the same when it gets to the floor.

What we have done is raised our sights beyond the $50 billion.

Knowing what is going to happen next year is going to be helpful in coming to a conclusion this year,

I think it is important to put these tax policies out there and do our best to make the truthful case that anything short of this would be a tax increase,

I think the compromise works. I talked to Chairman (Michael) Oxley about it again today and we look forward to having that situation resolved on the House floor next week.

I think we really need to have is the same kind of safeguards for the whole system that I believe we put in place in my office.

I think we'll have the votes next week,

I think we need to know a little more about what the world we're going to live in looks like.

I will continue to work aggressively in the next few hours and days to build on these commitments and to reach out to each of my colleagues, seeking their support for the vision of smarter, not bigger government that is accountable to the people who send us here.

I think the whole leadership is in agreement this is what ought to happen, both the House and the Senate,

Our team has the very big shoes of Tom DeLay to fill temporarily, ... Under the strong leadership of the Speaker, we will work hard to do what Tom would do -- complete our work, and move forward with a positive agenda for the American people -- until he returns.

We'll bring the first part of our package ... to the floor when we have 218 votes,

When it comes to being a responsible steward of the economy, Congress needs to either lead by promoting a pro-growth economic agenda - or, better yet, get the heck out of the way.

We have an awful lot of work to do on both sides of the aisle,

We haven't done this in 10 years, so the members aren't used to dealing with these mandatory programs,

We'll move toward voting next week, and when we do it will pass,

We were not quite where we needed to be to go to the floor. We'll come back next week and continue to work with our members.

This report's only of value if we use it in a positive, forward-looking way, and not try to get into meaningless blaming, who could have done what when; now that it doesn't matter, ... American Morning.

We all believe that he (DeLay) will return once this indictment is out of the way, and be the leader again.

Tom DeLay will stay as leader, ... Meet the Press.

Tom DeLay wants to lay out that case. I think our friends on the other side know the only effective way he can do that is if the Ethics Committee does its work,

This week ... we'll, I think under the suspension calendar, have TRIA (Terrorism Risk Insurance Act).

We weren't quite ready to go to the floor,

At the end of the day, ... that is probably the hardest work we have to do.

Even a bill designed to cut gas prices probably needed more time,

Putting together a sustainable budget requires that we all work together, that we focus our scarce resources on key priorities, and that we strengthen our capacity to deliver the best product we can for the American people. And that takes money.

They're probably not doing that because they have a really bad cold.

They're not used to pushing back when the other side suggests that the savings are deep cuts in social programs.

It's fair to say the White House has made the case -- both the president and the vice president -- that the McCain amendment is harmful,

It's no more difficult to file an ethics charge than it ever was.

It's not easy to fill the gap left by Tom DeLay but all of our team is going to come together like we've never come together before,

It's not easy to fill the gap, ... I think, largely because of his effectiveness as a leader, he became a target.

Despair has been your lot for 60 years, ... but today we can say farewell with courage and with the knowledge that the fate of our fellow citizens has finally been discovered.

Eventually we're going to take something to the floor that is a test of the members more than we intended to test the members, because that's just going to happen. I'm convinced that we're going to be fine when we take this to the floor on Thursday. But hard things to do are hard.

I'm not at all shy about reaching out to people on the outside, ... You don't do that only by looking at what resources are available to you in the building.

I'm the whip, ... We've had 50-plus straight victories, so any time we can't go to the floor the day we are supposed to go to the floor, I don't see that as a victory for me.

If you were in the leadership, how long would you want someone around telling you what to do?

I do think over the last seven years I've counted more votes than anybody else on the House floor, and I'm confident that we are now where we need to be to get this done.

I don't see any wavering of the support for the leader. I think a lot of members think he's taking arrows for all of us.

It takes leaders to grow other leaders.

One of the challenges of any second-term administration is you always lose a certain amount of identification with the Congress, because everybody in the Congress in the first term knows you'll be out there in the next campaign with them, .. Your motives are always a little more suspect when you don't have to face the voters again.

There isn't any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth.

Do you know how many Frenchmen it takes to defend Paris ? It's not known, it's never been tried.