Apparently launching those new [domestic social] programs can be delayed for a while, after all. It seems we have to get some missiles launched first. - Shirley Chisholm

Congress seems drugged and inert most of the time. Even when the problems it ignores build up to crises and erupt in strikes, riots, and demonstrations, it has not moved. Its idea of meeting a problem is to hold hearings or, in extreme cases, to appoint a commission.

Some other black political leaders scolded me. I told them that no one has a right to call himself a leader unless he dares to lead.

I am completely opposed to increasing the debt ceiling without basic tax reform. What we need in this country today is leadership which has the courage to call for income tax reform to put the burden where it must be placed, on those who can afford to pay.