Antonio Villaraigosa Quotes
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Actually, as president of the Conference of Mayors, we passed the Simpson-Bowles plan as a template, as a template, as a frame work for moving forward and the president has done the same.
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Over the years, I've learned, focus on the job at hand, and opportunities will open after.
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I say to people that Los Angeles is a city of America's hope and its promise. It's a city where we come from every corner of the Earth here to make the American dream happen.
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Let me be clear - no one is above the law. Not a politician, not a priest, not a criminal, not a police officer. We are all accountable for our actions.
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I want to figure out how we put California and America back on track - how we bridge this partisan divide that is so polarizing.
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How you are perceived is over a continuum of time. So I just keep on working. I've kind of always seen that as the antidote. Just keep on working.
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There are teachers' unions around the country realizing they want to improve standards of the profession, improve the quality of their profession, and ultimately attract the best and the brightest to their profession. The vast majority of teachers are dedicated and committed.
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I want to be known as the mayor who happens to be Latino who made a difference. I ran to make a difference.
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I don't want to describe either Governor Mitt Romney or the Republicans as stupid, but I will say this - if you look at their platform, the 2012 platform, it looks like it's from another century and maybe even two. It looks like the platform of 1812.
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I believe that the mayor of the most diverse city anywhere in the world has to be a uniter, has to be someone that's comfortable in every community, has to be someone that represents all of us.
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So laying people off is not something I do lightly, it's not something I relish.
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Too many Californians are struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills, and send their kids to college. They are looking for progressive leaders in Washington who will fight for them, like Senator Boxer has done for over 20 years.
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The fact is, when you hear the Republican candidates on immigration, when you see them and hear them talk about contraception, mammograms, abortion, and not the economy, it's clear to me they're moving farther and farther away from the mainstream.
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Because we believe that you got to build the economy from middle out and not from the top down.
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In no small part I think all of us kind of look in the mirror and feel good or not feel good about the person we seen in the mirror in no small part because of the jobs we have.
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I'm excited about Los Angeles because I believe in her. I believe in her destiny. I think that the fact that we have so many different people from so many parts of the world is a big reason why L.A. is the city of America's promise.
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For some time, I've said this issue of comprehensive immigration reform is not just an issue about immigration or human rights or civil rights, it's about our economy. You take 11 million people from out of the dark and into the light. The think tanks have surmised that you are talking about trillions of dollars infused into the economy.
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I believe in family values, and I believe that we all ought to be able to have a family and marry if you want to. I don't think the government should be in that business of denying people the fundamental right to marry.
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But I will say, I think there are some Democrats that don't want to address pension reform. I have taken on the issue of seniority and tenure. I think we have to address entitlements and the president has done that in his budget. I think we have to extend Medicare and the president has done that. But also reinvest in that program.
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The Democrats and Republicans need to come together. I've criticized Democrats for their unwillingness to address entitlement reform and Social Security and Medicare. Republicans, on the other hand, never saw a tax that they liked, even when it meant closing tax loopholes. They don't want to in any way support any revenue enhancements.
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My kids and I are spending time together. And we're enjoying that. Family is important; I was gone a lot in the 20 years of public service.
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The day that I spearheaded the passage of America Fast Forward... the newspaper of record did not put it in the newspaper; what they put was my breakup with my ex-girlfriend. I took umbrage with that. A great newspaper ought to be printing things that people care about, issues that people care about.
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I know that my heart and my family are here in California, not in Washington, D.C.
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Every president, Democrat or Republican, every Congress, has gotten behind the idea that we have to invest in our highways, our bridges, our roads, our airports. The idea that now this is somehow a partisan issue, it boggles the mind.