Political Quotes

“Tonight, I am going to actually have one positive and lots of things that are just terrifying, so let's have some fun with some math. Mr. Speaker, we often start with this board just because it helps everyone sort of visualize what we are talking about. A couple of weeks ago, I actually beat up on some of the Republican ideas in regard to where the debt was coming from. Tonight, I am going to beat up on some of my brothers and sisters on the left on tax proposals and how little they actually do, but first, if you are not terrified right now about what is going on with U.S. debt, you don't own a calculator. I have used this board for years. It is actually the 2022 board, but the concept is really simple. Mr. Speaker, you see this blue and the green. That is all we vote on. This wedge right here, that is all we get to vote on. That is what we call discretionary. The red is mandatory. That is Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. Those are the things that are on a formula. Recipients get those because they worked a certain number of quarters. They get those because they turned a certain age, are part of a certain Tribal group, or fall below a certain income. These are formula-driven. This wedge over here, defense and nondefense discretionary, when we were here a couple of weeks ago, our math said every dime of that discretionary, defense included, was going to be on borrowed money this year. The Supreme Court made its ruling in regard to student loan debt.…”