Political Quotes

“That was a concern about Gramm-Rudman. I voted for it because it was one of those things I could reach for on cuts, and it did for a time. The rate of growth slowed. If you were to graph it, it would have been a slight downward dip in the rate of Federal expenditure, although budgets were still larger the next year than they were the year before. Then times got tough. Or, I should say, times did not get tough, decisions got tough. Politicians got the heat put on them and they squirmed and they took just a little more off Gramm-Rudman than had been the year before, and we know the rest of the story. Gramm-Rudman is now history. It is one of about six documents that are now gathering dust on the shelves of some library as to the good intentions of a Congress failed, and the debt clock ticks. And what is the end result? Well, many are saying the Congress will not respond until there is a cataclysmic financial event where we no longer can pay for our bonds, where we no longer can accommodate or respond to our indebtedness. And that is when Congress will change things. Let me tell you what happened, though, that is unrecorded, that is now the wolf at the door of the average American family, because there is something happening out there as a result of this profligate spending of our Government. Starting in 1976 the average income of the American family as it related to buying power began to decline, and it has declined every year since then.”