Insight: “I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds… I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution.” —Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)

For the record: “Of the 150,493,263 filers who submitted individual income tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service for the 2015 tax year, only 99,040,729 paid any income tax at all. … And the divide gets worse. There were 30,417,609 filers who did not pay income taxes and received $89,614,869,000 in cash back from the federal government.” —Terence Jeffrey

Braying Jenny: “This GOP tax scam is simply theft — monumental, brazen theft — from the American middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it. The GOP tax scam is not a vote for an investment in growth or jobs, it is a vote to install a permanent plutocracy in our nation. They’ll be cheering that later.” —Nancy Pelosi

Reflections: “Right now any woman can say anything and a man’s career is ruined. Now, a lot of women can say things that are true, and [the men’s] careers should be ruined. But the problem is that any woman can say anything, and that’s it — it’s over. Is that how we’re running businesses now?” —MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski

The BIG Lie: “Sorry, NRA: The U.S. was actually founded on gun control.” —Ed Asner and Ed Weinberger in Salon (Actually, it’s the other way around.)

Belly laugh of the week: “I’ve served with eight presidents and I’ve gotten to know four of them very well. I’ve never met any president that has more character, more integrity, and more backbone than [Barack Obama] does. And [after] eight years, not a hint — not a hint — of a scandal.” —Joe Biden

Non Compos Mentis: “I believe it is very important for American, Mexican, Canadian, Central and South American, British, Swedish and children from any region and nation whose most important holiday is Christmas to know that Christmas is a Palestinian festival, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, an Abrahamic Prophet who was born in Bethlehem, a Palestinian City.” —former Pace University professor Golbarg Bashi

And last… “This year, an ideology that killed millions in the twentieth century attempted to resurrect itself. Oh, and the Nazis tried to make a comeback, too.” —Robert Tracinski