Political Quotes

“Forgive us, as we are getting ourselves organized. The gentleman from Texas ended a couple minutes sooner than we expected. Mr. Speaker, for anyone listening, whether it be staff, another Member, anyone that actually gives a darn, give me your first 4 minutes because in the first 4 minutes, I need to explain why we have been joking about it, in a dark way, that we are in the budget wars. It is about reconciliation. Why is there such angst by some of us-- Mr. Speaker, I chaired the Joint Economic Committee, so I am the idiot with all the economists. I am number four on Ways and Means. I am not good at many things in life. I am okay at math. What is going on that is stressing us? Last night, I could barely sleep because I had read report after report after report and the math was devastating. This is what we need to understand. Here is our reality. Forgive us, we have been going as fast as we can in our office to find some way to explain what the hell is going on. At the end of this budget year, September 30, the United States debt by Congressional Budget Office is projected to be $37.2 trillion. They are projecting over the next 10 years, we will add another $20 trillion. The debate that has been going on is, we have these provisions of the 2017 tax reform that are expiring at the end of this year. If you go take it to 2035 because that is sort of the 10-year window, in 9 budget years, it is another $5.5 trillion.…”