John Shadegg: “For those of you who have been here a little less time than I have, I came in the 104th Congress and joined this body in…”

“For those of you who have been here a little less time than I have, I came in the 104th Congress and joined this body in 1995, and for years after that we grew the economy at three and four times the rate of inflation, grew the size of government at three and four times the rate of inflation, year after year after year. We were spending at 8 and 12 percent, year after year, and that did not stimulate the economy. Indeed, that government spending, as you point out in your chart, from 1992 to 2001, if government spending was going to stimulate the economy, we would have a booming economy. The reality is, to stimulate the economy in this kind of circumstance, you have to put some cash back into it. The way government can do that is by cutting taxes.”