Quotes By J. C. Watts

Consider in Washington, around the country today we are talking about balanced budgets, paying down our national debt, getting the economy going, defending ourselves, activist judges. Newt Gingrich did all those things when he was speaker. We got tax relief. We got balanced budgets. We got, you know, job creation. We paid down our national debt.

In 1989 when I switched from Democrat to Republican, with God as my witness, not one thing changed about what I believed about one man and one woman in a marriage or about diversity of color. That's a good thing.

Everything I am I owe to my faith and secondly to parents who were old school.

Republicans think that the NAACP is the only voice in the black community. It is a voice in the black community. But it's not the only voice.

It doesn't take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.

My views on everything from welfare to a balanced budget to affirmative action can be traced to what Buddy and Helen Watts taught me as a young boy growing up poor but proud in Eufaula.

One of the Republicans' major products is dream making. People are dying to get into this country... not out of it.

Serving in Congress has been more than an honor; it has been one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life... It has been a wonderful ride. It has been a wonderful journey.

There's a whole lot more to the African-American community than entertainment and sports.

I'm not driven to get back into politics. It's not on my top five things to do before I die, but saying that, I may be in politics in the next year or the next ten years. I've been on the front line for 12 years, four in state government, eight on the national level.

That's the way blacks have been encouraged to think: that we got to stick together. You've got a situation today where if a black person says he thinks O.J. Simpson's guilty, other blacks will cut their eyes at him and say, 'You ought to go somewhere and sit down and shut up.'

Some might think that George W. Bush had his shortcomings, but let me tell you something - history's going to be kind to George W. Bush.

As an Oklahoma quarterback, you learn to perform under pressure.

When you look at the results that Newt Gingrich got when he was speaker, he got results for the American people.

I still get to preach 14, 15 times a year. But you have to make a living.

If you are explaining, you are losing.

Reparations, I believe, are talked about for political reasons, trying to cater for the purpose of getting votes. If Congress was serious about reparations - in '93 and '94 the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House, and not one single Republican vote was needed for reparations.

I am willing to compete on my merits and on my character - not with the color of my skin. We talk about being a color-blind society, but I don't think the political process could actually handle that.

I think Newt Gingrich has a proven track record of changing Washington and getting results.

I never got into politics for it to be a career.

Individual responsibility, hard work, paying attention in school, faith, family all these things are important.

I do think, however, that there's a very diverse point of view in the African-American community. There's a lot of different voices that need to be heard. I don't claim and pretend to know the thoughts and opinions and ideas of all African-Americans.

The Republican Party is terrific at determining how a program will impact the federal budget, but we're not nearly as good as the Democrats in explaining to people how our agenda will directly benefit them and their families.

In addition, there is one title I cherish a great deal more than Congressman and that is the title of... Dad.

If diversity is O.K. for God, it ought to be O.K. for Republicans.

The establishment wonders why we can't get more of the black vote. It's because it's not doing the things necessary to establish a deeper relationship with the black community. Most black people don't think alike. Most black people just vote alike.

I have often said one of the reasons more blacks don't support Republicans is because they don't trust the GOP establishment.

I think in politics, in Congress, you often do things that are Republican, or you do things because you're a Democrat. Sometimes that's good, obviously, and sometimes that's obviously bad. But in the news business, there's no such thing as Republican or Democratic news. News is news.

Most of all, however, critics of black conservatives say we've forgotten where we came from. I may forget a federal budget number or, God forbid, to set the alarm clock for my weekly 6 a.m. flight to Washington, but I know exactly where I came from.

My work in the House of Representatives, at this time in my life, is completed. It is time to return home.