“Just cutting $10 billion doesn’t reform anything.”

— U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., criticizing the Senate’s decision to eliminate $10 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to states while describing the reduction as Medicaid reform.

“The words ‘closure’ and ‘realignment’ are easy to write on paper, but they have profound effects on communities.”

— Anthony J. Principi, chairman of the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which is about to begin reviewing a list of U.S. military installations the Pentagon proposes to shut down.

“A tent city is staff-intensive because you’re not holding people with walls. You’re holding people with people.”

— Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk, expressing satisfaction that extra inmate capacity can be provided at Geiger Corrections Center in lieu of a tent city proposed earlier.

“I’ve camped out before, and this isn’t camping out as far as I’m concerned.”

— Convict Stephen Bartch, serving time for domestic battery, saying the tents used to relieve prison crowding in Idaho are more livable than the conventional dormitory at the Idaho Correctional Facility.

“His heart’s in it. No pun intended.”

— New York schoolteacher Karen Cohen, applauding former president and recent open-heart surgery patient Bill Clinton’s willingness to take a public role in the fight against childhood obesity.

“Changing the way the Legislature raises taxes shouldn’t be an emergency.”

— Whitman County farmer Steve Appel, president of the Washington Farm Bureau, one of the groups that contend in a lawsuit against the state that the Legislature had no justification in using an emergency clause that prevents citizens from forcing a referendum on a bill relaxing tax restrictions.

“I don’t care where you are, unless you’re in the Amazon rain forest, you’d know everybody was out looking for you.”

— Ryan Kelly, owner of a restaurant near Jennifer Wilbanks’ home, calling the Duluth, Ga., woman’s widely reported disappearance just before her wedding date an act of selfishness.