Political Quotes

“I rise to express concern about the budget deal that seems to have been reached that we will vote on later today or tomorrow morning. This Senator has a broader concern that we simply aren't cutting spending and that we aren't holding to the budget agreements we made. What we are doing here is getting rid of or extending the budget caps on the budget control agreement, spending about $80 billion more than we would have otherwise. We have told ourselves that we have offset this spending. Here is my concern. It is clear that we haven't. Some of the so-called offsets are simple budget gimmicks. Many have been tried and true in the past, such as just extending the sequester a little longer. One that is of particular concern was raised earlier today. There is in this budget agreement a modest crop insurance savings provision. In farm bills over the past few years, we have tried to rein in some of the massive subsidies and waste that have gone on in terms of direct payments and some of the other methods. A lot of that funding has gone toward crop insurance, and it is quite a generous program. In fact, the taxpayer subsidizes crop insurance on average of I think about 70 percent. Seventy percent of the premium is paid for by the taxpayers.…”