Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas is my buddy. In some ways he is much more elegant with language. He has the misfortune of being a lawyer. I show up at townhalls and things like that and they say it is defense spending. Then they don't believe you when you say, no, defense is either third or fourth. Actually, defense spending is what is in the Constitution. We have to deal with the reality. This coming fiscal year, I calculate Social Security will be at $1.480 trillion. The shortfall, just this fiscal year, is about $340 billion in the Social Security tax that comes in and the spending is out the door. That is why you see them every month having to cash in their special Social Security Treasury bills. Let's just call it that. Now, they get paid interest. Believe it or not, about 6 percent of the Social Security budget is actually interest paid by the general fund. In some ways, over here we are borrowing money to pay back the interest on the borrowed money. You have got to see this weird washing machine that is going on.”