Mitch Daniels Federal Quotations

I am honored to be summoned to service by President-elect Bush and look forward to joining him in making bipartisan progress on the issues important to Americans. The federal surplus is a hard-earned accomplishment that belongs to the American people, and I am pleased to help the president-elect ensure that it is used for responsible goals.

I would think that humanitarian aid to Americans ought to come right at the top of priority lists, ... I, for one, would support all the aid that makes sense to help these places get back together. And if that means that lesser priorities -- and there are plenty that they spend federal tax dollars on out there (in Washington) -- need to take a back seat for a while, that's probably what they should do.

We are ready to do whatever can be done. I am happy to place transportation capabilities of the Guard at federal disposal, if that would be helpful.

We recognize the federal government plays a very important role in researching cures for disease, and, therefore, our budget increases the NIH budget for 2002 by $2.8 billion, the largest increase in that department's history,

Revenues, tax payments to the federal government -- which generally rise and fall, historically have risen and fallen with the economy and with economic growth -- have been weaker than we expected. And this is due, apparently, almost entirely, to what I will call stock market-related income,

Adding these factors together, it is regrettably my conclusion that we are unlikely to return to balance in the federal accounts before possibly fiscal '05. That is, in the next two years things will have to break right for us to do that,

As you know, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provisions require that firms seeking to do business with the government have a satisfactory record of business ethics and integrity. Consideration should be given to the initiation of suspension or debarment proceedings for all, or a part, of Arthur Andersen and Enron as appropriate.