Pelosi's Quotes & Sayings

The last time I saw Ted Kennedy was a generation after my first meeting, at the Senate subway below the Capitol on Obama's Inauguration Day. He was his usual gregarious and gracious self - with beaming smile and booming voice wishing my husband and me good luck with our pregnancy and expressing his excitement about the new president. — Christine Pelosi

The sheer magnitude of Speaker Pelosi's spending spree is mind boggling. Most of us do not use the number 1,000,000,000,000 in our daily lives, so it is difficult to attach tangible value to the figure. — Geoff Davis

Having five children in six years is the best training in the world for Speaker of the House. — Nancy Pelosi

I worked as a prosecutor watching Catholic priests charged with sex abuse and saw firsthand how the 'circle the wagons' mentality revictimized the innocent, coddled the guilty, and made matters worse for everyone. — Christine Pelosi

After Nancy Pelosi became Speaker, we were told, 'She's the first female speaker of the House, so whether we like it or not, we've got to handle this with kid gloves. Don't go after Speaker Pelosi. You can go after other people, but you'll be branded as mean and evil if you go after the first female Speaker of the House.' — Louie Gohmert

America's demographic shift was obvious to everyone in the 2010 Census - but Republicans stubbornly rejected math, facts, and polls to their electoral peril. While Republicans tailored their platform by and for the pale stale and male, among us, Obama and Democrats are embracing America's diverse mosaic. — Christine Pelosi

Ted Kennedy's inspiration will loom large over our politics for years to come, uplift us in the healthcare fight, and help to achieve his dream of liberty and justice for all. — Christine Pelosi

To those who say it would be too difficult to repeal and replace Obamacare, I say it's a two step process. We repeal the Pelosi Congress in 2010 and replace the Obama Administration in 2012. — Mike Pence

Fault lines run along color lines in American public life, and the women's movement is no exception. Over the years, feminism has become more inclusive but there is still hard work to be done to include LGBT women and communities of color. — Christine Pelosi

I would never think of crying about any loss of an office, because that's always a possibility, and if you're professional, then you deal with it professionally. — Nancy Pelosi

Pass the bill to find out what's in it — Nancy Pelosi

Furthermore, we believe that health care reform, again I said at the beginning of my remarks, that we sent the three pillars that the President's economic stabilization and job creation initiatives were education and innovation - innovation begins in the classroom - clean energy and climate, addressing the climate issues in an innovative way to keep us number one and competitive in the world with the new technology, and the third, first among equals I may say, is health care, health insurance reform. — Nancy Pelosi

President Obama and Democrats won a mandate to move us forward with jobs, healthcare reform, equality, and nation building here at home. — Christine Pelosi

By making college more affordable for all and more accessible for minority students, the first new higher education authorizing legislation in a decade will help strengthen our nation and America's middle class, and spur a new age of innovation and ingenuity in our country. — Nancy Pelosi

I admired the way McCain worked on campaign finance reform. I admired the way Nancy Pelosi stiffened the Democrats' spine during the health care debate. I admire the way Barack Obama has raised a dog in the White House without ever putting it on the roof of the car for a vacation drive. — Gail Collins

Saddam Hussein certainly has chemical and biological weapons. There's no question about that. — Nancy Pelosi

The Republican Party is the Grand Old Party. It's made enormous contributions to the success of our country. And it is a party that has embraced its leadership role when it has had the majority or the White House. — Nancy Pelosi

Stephen Colbert used to be my friend. I even signed the poor baby's cast when he hurt his hand. — Nancy Pelosi

The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history. — Nancy Pelosi

On the subject of money and politics and the rest, I have a DARE: Disclose who are these people; Amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United; Reform: let's have public financing of campaigns; and Empower. — Nancy Pelosi

After almost 50 years in which federal spending averaged about 20 percent of GDP, Joe Sestak and Nancy Pelosi took federal spending to 25 percent. You know, that's a 25 percent increase in the size of the government overnight. That's what we - that's what we've got to rein in. — Pat Toomey

I am grateful for the support of those who want to see more women in Congress to better represent our country and provide leadership and solutions to DC. Ron Barber has been asleep at the switch on issues that are extremely important to Southern Arizona, such as fighting for the A-10 and Davis-Monthan. That is why Nancy Pelosi is stepping in to try to save his job in November. Sometimes the best man for the job is a woman that is why I fully intend on replacing Congressman Barber on Election Day. — Martha McSally

I think it's interesting that people like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi said that the Tea Party was dead and they weren't influential and yet they're still talking about the Tea Party. — Katie Pavlich

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited me to breakfast on the eighteenth. Five days before, she had issued a news release saying, "The president's strategy in Iraq has failed," and "The choice is between a Democratic plan for responsible redeployment and the president's plan for an endless war in Iraq." With those comments as backdrop, at the breakfast I urged her to pass the defense appropriations bill before October and to pass the War Supplemental in total, not to mete it out a few weeks or months at a time. I reminded her that the president had approved Petraeus's recommendation for a change of mission in December and told her that Petraeus and Crocker had recommended a sustainable path forward that deserved broad bipartisan support. She politely made clear she wasn't interested. I wasn't surprised. After all, one wouldn't want facts and reality - not to mention the national interest - to intrude upon partisan politics, would one? — Robert M. Gates

One of the things I give Nancy Pelosi a lot of credit for is that she's able to get things passed and hold her members together because she shows us that she's doing everything possible to get our views into these bills. — Peter Welch

If we have another 2,000 people killed, I want Nancy Pelosi and George Soros, John Conyers and Pat Leahy to go to the funeral and say, 'Your son was vaporized because we didn't want to dump some guy's head under water for 30 seconds.' — Peter T. King

The promise of Social Security was reflected in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's inter-generational compact that rewards hard work and provides retirement security. — Christine Pelosi

The more women we elect to public office, the more wholesome the whole process will be, whether it's government, politics, whatever. — Nancy Pelosi

In Washington, we've seen enough tax hikes, government takeovers, bailouts, and other big government solutions under Speaker Pelosi's control. — Kevin McCarthy

I go back and forth as to whether I think Nancy Pelosi's really this dumb or not. Although, every time I hear her speak I get closer and closer to concluding that she is this dumb. — Rush Limbaugh

I was raised in an Italian catholic family in Baltimore, Maryland. Our faith is very important to us, our patriotism, love of faith, love of family, love of country. I took pride in our Italian American heritage and to be the first woman speaker of the House and the first Italian American speaker of the House, it's quite thrilling for me. — Nancy Pelosi

Once you run and once you win with an unabashed progressive feminist standard, then it becomes easier for everybody else who's running, — Christine Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet - we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that. — Michele Bachmann

I believe that the president's (Bush) leadership in the actions taken in Iraq demonstrate an incompetence in terms of knowledge, judgment and experience in making the decisions that would have been necessary to truly accomplish the mission without the deaths to our troops and the cost to our taxpayers. — Nancy Pelosi

Harry Reid is not funny; he's creepy. Nancy Pelosi is creepy. Charles Schumer is sneaky and creepy. — Lewis Black

A successful marriage is a decision. You decide it's going to work. You can't always be there, but you have to be there enough. And you have to make sure you are where you're needed most. — Nancy Pelosi

Since joining the U.S. House of Representatives in November of 2006, I have strongly supported Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I have the utmost respect for her, and I believe the Democrats were able to accomplish a great deal under her leadership. — Albio Sires

To far too many, science is a four-letter word, and under the modern media's false equivalency standards, a handful of skeptics are viewed as counterweights to the vast majority of scientists who acknowledge mankind's proven role in global warming. — Christine Pelosi

With Citizens United, the Supreme Court's declaration that corporations are people, the whims of one can silence the voices of millions. — Christine Pelosi

Whatever the deal is with other countries, we want a better deal for America's workers. — Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi's problem is her spine doesn't reach her brain. — Liz Cheney

I've criticized Republicans for their lack of fiscal discipline when they controlled Congress before 2007. However, that is no excuse to just continue with more of the same or, as the case is now, to make it worse. Under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's budget, we will double the national debt in five years and triple it in 10. — Erik Paulsen

The House of Representatives has never sued a sitting president in all of U.S. history. — Nancy Pelosi

You have to believe in who you are and what difference you can make. You have to care about the urgency and the difference it will make to your community, and you have to, again, have confidence in the contribution that you can make. You believe, you care, you have confidence in the difference that you can make. And that's not to be egotistical, it's just to be confident. — Nancy Pelosi

Baseball fans are collectively the '10th man' and needed most when team performance is shaky. When mistakes are made, there's no need to heckle your team - that's what the other side is for! — Christine Pelosi

As many of you know, I came from San Francisco. We don't have a lot of farms there. Well, we do have one - it's a mushroom farm, so you know what that means. — Nancy Pelosi

If I cry, it's about the personal loss of a friend or something like that. But when it comes to politics - no, I don't cry. — Nancy Pelosi

Let's just do what is right for the American people. And those of us who are involved in politics and government know that our responsibility is to the American people, that we have a responsibility to find our common ground, to seek it and to find it. — Nancy Pelosi

It's interesting that at a time when she could have differentiated herself from the ranks of [Democratic National Committee Chairman] Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi and the far left ranks of the Democratic Party, she chose to join those on the front ranks of the blame game, It would have been interesting if she had shown some level of restraint. — Brian Jones

We've got Nancy Pelosi. She never shuts up. It's just occasionally we have to hood her like a falcon so we can get some sleep. — Dennis Miller

There are the fundamental core values of the Democratic Party, which is to work to grow the economy, to create jobs, to encourage small business, to encourage ownership, to expand access to quality health care, to enhance opportunity by making higher education more affordable to American's young people, to have our children live in safe neighborhoods, drug-free, crime-free, and a safe and clean environment, first and foremost to provide for the national defense, to protect and defend the American people, and to have accountability for our budget and for our spending. — Nancy Pelosi

The Democrats cannot find Romney fingerprints on what's happening to this country. Every fingerprint is Barack Obama's, Joe Biden's, Nancy Pelosi's, Harry Reid's, Barney Frank's, you name it, Eric Holder. — Rush Limbaugh

Washington and Congress are steeped in history and tradition, and that's been very male-oriented. — Nancy Pelosi

What I do care about is that it's an obstacle to other women entering politics, because they'll say, "Why would I do that? I have plenty of other options." And women with plenty of options are just the women that we want to be in politics and government. — Nancy Pelosi

Whether you're president or speaker, if you're wrong, we need to stand up and point it out. That's what Martin Luther King had talked about: being judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. So some of us pounded away on some of the ridiculous policies of Pelosi - and lo and behold, over time, the public began to see. — Louie Gohmert

It isn't as much you a spending problem as a priorities, and that is what the budget is, setting priorities. It's about timing. And it's about timing as to when make cuts, as well. — Nancy Pelosi

That's why they (the Bush administration) had to make up that story about weapons of mass destruction. Because that was the only thing that would sell to the American people, and that wasn't true. — Nancy Pelosi

Older people are not going to evaporate from the face of the Earth for two years. They're going to have medical need and they're going to have to be attended to. And the earlier intervention for it, the less the cost will be and the better the quality of life. — Nancy Pelosi

Everybody will have lower rates, better quality, and better access. — Nancy Pelosi

Well, if Democratic members in the House elect Nancy Pelosi as their leader, it's almost as if they just didn't get the message from the voters this election. I mean, the voters outright rejected the agenda that she's been about. And here they're going to put her back in charge. — Eric Cantor

I always say the beauty is in the mix. — Nancy Pelosi

Who knows what crumbling infrastructure lies beneath our sleeping children? Actually, many people do - they pay surveyors to take a look. — Christine Pelosi

Each generation is responsible to make the future of the next. — Nancy Pelosi

I have newspapers coming to me and saying, 'Can we get in on the TARP?'. — Nancy Pelosi

Hamas is a humanitarian organization. — Nancy Pelosi

After President Obama's election, efforts at othering Obama quickly became about smearing his non-partisan allies and ambassadors. — Christine Pelosi

A West Virginia 10 is a California 4. Or at least that's what legend tells us: The Legend of Dr. Feelgood. Plastic surgery has a permanent home here, which is why Nancy Pelosi loves our Botoxed beaches. Beverly Hills looks like a moving Madame Tussauds. — Ben Shapiro

I have deep emotions about the American people. If I were to cry for anything, I would cry for them and the policies that they're about to face. — Nancy Pelosi

My earliest memories of my mom were of her multi-tasking - preparing dinner while checking on homework and housework; clearing the dinner plates while setting out bowls for breakfast; making sure we ate our breakfast while lining up bread, lunch meats, apples, and snacks assembly-line style so we could make our lunches. — Christine Pelosi

Mitt Romney has won the 2012 presidential nomination by promising Republicans that he would end a so-called 'culture of dependency' on welfare - welfare defined as 'free stuff' and food stamps for poor folks, not tax breaks for Big Oil or tax shelters for Bain executives. — Christine Pelosi

We will energize America by achieving energy independence — Nancy Pelosi

The proposed Bush regulations put politics above the health care needs of Americans. — Nancy Pelosi

My parents had five children in six years and one week, meaning that my mom was pregnant for most of the '60s and driving carpools for most of the '70s. When we were young, she dressed us alike so she could pick us out in crowds: identical skirts for the four girls with the color-coordinated pants for my brother. — Christine Pelosi

If have to undergo preschool safety checks every morning, why does a random thug get to own an assault rifle? — Christine Pelosi

We all must educate children at the youngest ages that private parts are private, 'no' means no, and there is only one code of honor for everyone. — Christine Pelosi

We are not going back to the failed policies of the past. We are fighting for the middle class! — Nancy Pelosi

Sitting at a candidate rally is similar to sitting in a ballyard. Both give you the opportunity to assess the technical metrics and reflect on the intangibles - what baseball calls 'make up' and politics calls 'character' - the leadership, talent and maturity to add value to a venture. — Christine Pelosi

I think about my parents all the time, especially on Sunday when I'm at Mass. My mother always said, 'We do not pray to win elections. We pray for people's health, we pray that God's will be done, we pray that we do our best. But we do not pray to win elections.' — Nancy Pelosi

Jobs mean freedom for workers to support their families. — Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi said that when it comes to cleaning up government, the Democrats have drained the swamp. The only problem with that is what's left after you drain the swamp: snakes everywhere. — Jay Leno

I come back to the science that is in it to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and climate change. It's about science, science, science and science, innovation, as we rebuild America, create jobs, invest in our people and turn this economy around. — Nancy Pelosi

Anybody who's ever dealt with me knows not to mess with me. — Nancy Pelosi

Being the first woman speaker and breaking the marble ceiling is pretty important. Now it's time to move on. — Nancy Pelosi

There's plenty of opportunity for everyone, so there's no reason to worry about somebody else's success, either saying you couldn't do this so she's better than you, or she's doing it so you can't. No, she's doing it so you can. — Nancy Pelosi

We in Congress stand by Israel. In Congress, we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel. — Nancy Pelosi

At the end of the day, I have one job requirement right now that's been given to me by the Republican Party and, I think, the American people, and that's to fire Nancy Pelosi. — Michael Steele

Members of the Senate are considering a tax on cosmetic surgery. When they brought it up, you should have seen the look that Nancy Pelosi's face tried to make. — Conan O'Brien

Republicans rejected calls for amnesty and we've fought efforts to provide illegal aliens with taxpayer funded benefits. The American people are far closer to our Republican approach to border security than they are to Nancy Pelosi's approach. — Marsha Blackburn

I mean, look, Nancy Pelosi said in the very beginning this is going to be the most open, honest and ethical Congress in history. And what we're seeing is she's breaking that promise every day. — Eric Cantor

With Americans worried about losing their jobs, their savings, their homes and their chance at the American Dream, the New Direction Congress will work in a bipartisan way to lift our economy and help America's middle class. — Nancy Pelosi

Growing up, in church we had the homily; at home it's what I call the 'momily' - the inspirational and instructive mom-isms that every family has. — Christine Pelosi

When taxpayers are subsidizing low wages, people should be aware of that. We're subsidizing an economy. We're not subsidizing people. They are doing a hard day's work. When we're not rewarding work actively, there's something wrong with the system. — Nancy Pelosi

I supported my friend Congressman Shuler over former Speaker Nancy Pelosi during our party's leadership elections in November citing a need for new leadership. — Joe Donnelly

America's belated embrace of government health care is going to be far more expensive and disastrous than the Euro-Canadian models. Whatever one's philosophical objection to the Canadian health system, it is, broadly, fair: Unless you're a cabinet minister or a big time hockey player, you'll enjoy the same equality of crappiness and universal lack of access that everybody else does. But, even before it's up-and-running, Pelosi-Reid-Obamacare is an impenetrable thicket of contradictory boondoggles, shameless payoffs and arbitrary shakedowns. — Mark Steyn

As we move forward to debate our economic and fiscal challenges in the weeks and months ahead, one thing is clear: Our economic agenda, choices and decisions, will be viewed through the perspective and the eyes of our nation's women and their needs and those of their families. — Nancy Pelosi

Republicans support opening the floodgates to special interest money and suppressing the right to vote. It's just plain wrong. — Nancy Pelosi

That is why, as one who values the U.S. - Israel relationship, and loves Israel, I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister's speech - saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation. — Nancy Pelosi

Raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do, but it's a popular thing to do as well. — Nancy Pelosi

Conservatives and companies condoned Rush Limbaugh's 2006 attacks on Michael J. Fox for campaigning about stem cell research. — Christine Pelosi

The situation in Iraq and the reckless economic policies in the United States speak to one issue for me, and that is the competence of our leader, — Nancy Pelosi