35 Quotes by Peter Welch

There’s a tendency in politics to attribute bad motivation much too quickly, and the sooner you attribute bad motivation to someone you disagree with, the harder it is to find some common ground to make some progress that would give people confidence that you got it more right than wrong.

If you ask the question of Americans, should we pay our bills? One hundred percent would say yes. There’s a significant misunderstanding on the debt ceiling. People think it’s authorizing new spending. The debt ceiling doesn’t authorize new spending; it allows us to pay obligations already incurred.

I favor the extension of the middle-class tax cuts because in a recession they’re stimulative and they help with demand.

To the extent that people overpay as a result of the Libor manipulation, they should be able to get their money back. Individuals who have mortgages, pension funds who had pensioner investments – whoever was ripped off is entitled to get their money back.

In Washington, ‘delay’ is too often code for ‘derail.’ Wink, wink.

The rhetoric on the Hill is getting very heated and it’s getting quite dangerous. The gun is at the head of the American economy and Congress is holding it and its got a hair trigger. We’ve got to pay our bills.

The Citizen’s Petition reflects Vermont’s spirit of pragmatism and across-the-board cooperation. I applaud the ‘Campaign to Fix the Debt’ for calling attention to one of the country’s most pressing problems, our ballooning national debt, and for urging policymakers to find practical solutions.

Swipe fees have increased steadily since the introduction of debit cards 20 years ago, when there were no swipe fees at all. Merchants can’t negotiate or control them. They’ve tried, but they have no leverage against the big banks and issuers. So they get ignored.