“There is nothing to regret with a job well done.”
― Joe Garcia
“Scandals, corruption, partisan infighting – no wonder people have lost faith in Congress. I say enough is enough.”
― Joe Garcia
“Our policies should be to help develop civil society and increase contacts with people.”
― Joe Garcia
“We deserve quality jobs that pay a living wage, lower college tuition, action on climate change, and comprehensive immigration reform.”
― Joe Garcia
“I’m have one of the most, if not the most, moderate voting records in Congress in the Florida delegation.”
― Joe Garcia
“The reason there’s not a dictatorship in Chile and that there’s a democracy in South Africa and Portugal today – and that Haiti has a nascent democracy – is that the world community as a whole felt outraged. This is the reason Milosevic sits in a jail in The Hague. It’s because the world has said, ‘Enough.’”
― Joe Garcia
“I’ve been a loud voice as a Democratic leader for years, but that’s not my job now. My job is to represent fishermen and farmers – everyone.”
― Joe Garcia
“People in Cuba are victims.”
― Joe Garcia
“Thousands of people perish in the Straits of Florida every year. We understand it within the context of the Cuban reality.”
― Joe Garcia
“More people die on a yearly basis crossing the Florida Straits than ever died trying to cross the Berlin Wall.”
― Joe Garcia
“The Mariel boatlift was probably one of the most strengthening events of the exile community; maybe Nietzschean, in the sense that if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger.”
― Joe Garcia
“To say that I could manipulate one of the men who has shown the most courage before the Cuban government, who gets beaten every day, who did a hunger strike that freed political prisoners… I think that’s absurd.”
― Joe Garcia
“The reality is that people know my character, and they know my service.”
― Joe Garcia
“We did great things when we were in Congress, and I want to continue work on the issues that matter to South Florida, because we deserve better.”
― Joe Garcia
“I want to go back to Congress and get to work on making a real difference for the families and workers of South Florida.”
― Joe Garcia
“The Democratic voters of the 26th district know me well, and I am confident I will have their support.”
― Joe Garcia
“We have to be realistic: we are not going to be able to deport 11 million people – most are hard-working people.”
― Joe Garcia
“As much as people want to call me a bomb-thrower, look at my record.”
― Joe Garcia
“I think what we have to do is speak about the issues and speak about my record.”
― Joe Garcia
“I have Obamacare; trust me – it’s not perfect.”
― Joe Garcia
“I don’t go to Washington to represent the president; I go to represent the people of this district.”
― Joe Garcia
“What we did was make it easier for people to subscribe to and expand Obamacare.”
― Joe Garcia
“What you haven’t seen from me are false attacks.”
― Joe Garcia
“The Koch brothers spent millions against me.”
― Joe Garcia
“The Koch brothers are spending more money against me than I’ve been able to raise.”
― Joe Garcia
“The people who support Mr. Curbelo’s campaign are people who oppose Medicare and Social Security, want to reform it to take it away from our seniors, and oppose a minimum wage.”
― Joe Garcia
“The Elian events were shocking to Cubans because we were the fair-haired boys of the Cold War. The problem is, the Cold War ended.”
― Joe Garcia
“The poorest guy in Miami lives better than much of the power elite in Havana.”
― Joe Garcia
“To help advance democracy, we need to allow for the reunification of Cuban families and the direct sending of remittances to the island’s brave dissidents.”
― Joe Garcia
“The key here is that we’re not going to beat them on commercials: They’re always going to have more money than us. So what we have to try to do throughout is just ask people to make sure they vote.”
― Joe Garcia
“I’ve got these high negatives because the Koch brothers have spent a year attacking me.”
― Joe Garcia
“I worked for the Cuban American National Foundation for years.”
― Joe Garcia
“My grandfather died under house arrest.”
― Joe Garcia
“I’ve got the most beautiful district. I can understand why Republicans want it.”
― Joe Garcia
“If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime.”
― Joe Garcia
“A day does not go by when I am not in a line at a store or at a McDonald’s, and someone will touch my hand, and they will say, ‘Thank you.’”
― Joe Garcia
“Cubans have no bar to being legalized once they are in America. All other Hispanics – with the exception of Puerto Ricans – have to go through a broken, dysfunctional process. One group is American from day one. And all the rest are trying to be.”
― Joe Garcia
“We live in the world’s greatest democracy; we want for nothing. And that which we want, we can work toward achieving.”
― Joe Garcia
“In undergraduate school, I chose a career path that always leads to certain unemployment: I majored in politics and public affairs with a double-minor in philosophy and history.”
― Joe Garcia
“Looking for a job, I was working with the Salvadoran American Foundation, a humanitarian aid group, and from there, I got an offer from the Cuban-American National Foundation.”
― Joe Garcia
“Visionless status quo policy towards Latin-America, particularly towards Cuba, has turned off a lot of people, and I think it’s created an opening.”
― Joe Garcia
“Sending $300 to your grandma in Cuba doesn’t change the dynamic with Castro.”
― Joe Garcia
“When members of this House use inflammatory language, use offensive language, it does not help the process. It is beneath the dignity of this body and this country.”
― Joe Garcia
“The world’s longest-serving dictator has just stepped down and handed over power. The national project of Cuba, which was Fidel’s vision, is now finished. It’s something – a small something, but still something.”
― Joe Garcia
“The Republican Party views Hispanics in terms of market share: Who are they? How do we reach them? Democrats still view us in terms of quotas.”
― Joe Garcia
“The Cold War has ended for America.”
― Joe Garcia
“Family is more important than ideology.”
― Joe Garcia
“You can still do the Big Lie in Miami and get away with it. This is a town where the basic institutions have collapsed.”
― Joe Garcia
“The last time the Diaz-Balarts were removed from power, it took a revolution, and we ended up with Fidel Castro.”
― Joe Garcia
“It shows courage, and it shows commitment to move beyond the status-quo politics of rhetoric, which is all the Cuban-American community has received from any party for the last half century.”
― Joe Garcia
“The growth of purposeful travel is a good thing. It can have a positive impact. We should continue to experiment and move along this line.”
― Joe Garcia
“The truth is that the driver in policy is not the relationship between the United States and Cuba, but the relationship between Cubans, and that is far stronger than 50 years of intragovernment hostility.”
― Joe Garcia
“When you remove just some of the barriers, people do what people do: help their families.”
― Joe Garcia
“Thousands of people in my district need health insurance, and ACA is helping them. I’m committed to do everything I can to help people get enrolled and get covered, and that includes moving needed reforms for the bill and helping people find affordable coverage.”
― Joe Garcia
“I think more civil society programs, more free enterprise, more contacts with their fellow brethren in Miami – that’s good for the long-term, and that’s an investment in America’s long-term relationship with the Cuban people, not the Cuban government.”
― Joe Garcia
“Everybody wants to have the president talk about their issue.”
― Joe Garcia
“Fidel Castro had to sit there while he was given a speech on democracy, something the Cuban people have not been able to hear for 43 years.”
― Joe Garcia
“There is no question that I loved representing the people of South Florida.”
― Joe Garcia
“There is nothing that I didn’t get to do while I was serving in Congress – except be in the majority.”
― Joe Garcia
“I will never be done with South Florida.”
― Joe Garcia
“We have all seen Washington politicians fail us.”
― Joe Garcia
“Right here at home, we have seen what happens when a politician breaks that public trust, when they are dishonest and corrupt.”
― Joe Garcia
“John Kerry’s record on Cuba is pretty bad.”
― Joe Garcia
“Bush is the Liberace of Cuban politics. He knows how to play us. He says every single thing they want to hear.”
― Joe Garcia
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