Political Quotes

“I wish to show my colleagues this chart I have in the Chamber that talks about America's fiscal condition. This chart came out of the CQ Today edition of Tuesday, February 2. As you can see, it takes the fiscal year 2011 revenue estimates over here, with this pie chart on the left, and it takes our proposed outlays with this other pie chart on the right. Of course, it is obvious to anyone who is paying attention, if you look at these two numbers, it looks like we are taking in $2.5 trillion but we are sending out $3.8 trillion. That is a big problem. That means, once again, we are in deficit spending. We have to get our fiscal house in order. I do not know if my colleagues on both sides saw this reported this week, but earlier there was a story in the New York Times--and it has been reported in other publications--that Moody's is looking at the possibility of downgrading America's credit from AAA down to something lower than that because of the enormous national debt we have and the persistent annual deficits.”