• Will the anti-tax [fervor] of the U.S. government continue? No, I don’t think that’s possible.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Nation   |   October 16, 2012
• Joshua Schank, president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation and former transportation adviser for then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, on how he thinks government will have changed 25 years from now. Read more public officials' predictions about what government will look like in 2037 below.

• You’re less likely to stab someone in the back if you’re going to be having tea and cookies with them next Monday.
• Source: CommonWealth Magazine   |   Massachusetts   |   October 15, 2012
• Bill Weld, the former Massachusetts governor who in 1991 started the unusual tradition of having regular, weekly meetings for political leaders to talk about issues and legislation as well as get to know each other.

• Hello boys, thank you for calling me on my anniversary.
• Source: Reuters   |   Florida   |   October 12, 2012
• The recording on a phone sex hotline that people heard when they tried to call a toll-free hotline to learn more about the meningitis outbreak in Florida. Gov. Rick Scott mistakenly gave out the wrong number, mixing up one of the digits.

• If this were a modern-day fairy tale ... solar developers would be saying, 'Mirror, mirror on the ground, look at all the money I found!'
• Source: Los Angeles Times   |   California   |   October 11, 2012
• A California county official, talking about the state's renewable energy industry that's booming, in part, because of low-interest, government-guaranteed loans.

• We don't hesitate one minute to blow our own horn.
• Source: McClatchy Newspapers   |   Danville, Va.   |   October 10, 2012
• Harold McKinney, Boyle County Judge-Executive in Danville, Ky., which is hosting the vice presidential debate Thursday. The town of 16,000 has won several honors, including being named one of the best, most beautiful small towns in America.
• 2 Comments

• The fourth year of most people’s high school is a waste of time.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Nation   |   October 9, 2012
• Ron Sims, a member of the Washington State University Board of Regents, who predicts that 25 years from now, K-12 education will become K-11 education. Read more public officials' predictions about what government will look like in 2037 below.

• The death penalty? Give me a break. It’s easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy.
• Source: AP/Politico   |   Nation   |   October 8, 2012
• Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who thinks both are constitutional, says his "textualist" approach to interpreting the Constitution makes even the most controversial issues easy to resolve.
• 3 Comments

• mr. president, you needed a five hour energy drink before you started this debate. #Current2012
• BY: Caroline Cournoyer   |   Nation   |   October 5, 2012
• Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, via Twitter, in response to President Barack Obama's performance in the presidential debate this week.

• The economy is not doing poorly because of a lack of money. ... [It's] because we don’t have the creativity, education and investments in people that we had previously.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Nation   |   October 4, 2012
• Fred Leeb, the former emergency financial manager for Pontiac, Mich., a financially distressed city that was essentially taken over by the state. Leeb proposes solving cities' economic problems by giving a few billion dollars to the country's top minds to collaborate on a monumental project -- if they agree to live and work in one of America's struggling cities.

• Leave the partying with Lindsay to the professionals. Do your day job.
• Source: Politico   |   Montana   |   October 3, 2012
• Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer's advice for the Congressional staffer who was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault after a fight about a cellphone with actress Lindsay Lohan.

• When people are using language like ‘death panels,’ there’s more emotion and fear than if you say you want to honor the wishes of this individual.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Nation   |   October 2, 2012
• Dr. Susan Tolle, director of the Center for Ethics in Health Care at the Oregon Health & Sciences University, on how word choice factors into the chance of success for a state-level movement focused on giving terminally ill patients more say in what medicine and medical procedures they want or don’t want.

• I always thought a cane was dapper. Maybe I'll order a three-piece suit from London.
• Source: Detroit News   |   Michigan   |   October 1, 2012
• Brooks Patterson, the Oakland County, Mich., executive, who's in a wheelchair after suffering several injuries from a car accident. He's seeking his fifth four-year term in November.

• We may lose some seats in the Legislature, but this is a Republican state and it isn’t going to change.
• Source: Stateline   |   Arizona   |   September 28, 2012
• Steve Pierce, president of the state Senate in Arizona, where newly redrawn legislative maps are expected to help Democrats pick up seats in November.

• Americans have the mistaken idea that more medicine is better medicine.
• Source: Stateline   |   Arkansas   |   September 27, 2012
• Andy Allison, the director of Arkansas' Medicaid program, which is launching an initiative aimed at taming runaway costs by offering doctors financial incentives to provide more efficient care.

• For them to say there is a war on women. I am still looking for it.
• Source: Raleigh News & Observer   |   South Carolina   |   September 26, 2012
• Gov. Nikki Haley, campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in South Carolina where suburban women disproportionately make up the sliver of undecided voters.