Political Quotes

“I rise in support of the Nussle budget, but in stronger support of the RSC Toomey budget. Let me make it clear why. This Congress, year in and year out, faces the challenge of setting a budget for our Nation, but it seems to me this year we are divorced from reality. The reality of this Nation is that in the last 7 years, nondefense discretionary spending has grown by a staggering 66 percent. Over the past 7 years, discretionary spending has grown at three and a half times the rate of inflation. In fiscal year 2003 alone, we increase spending by 9 percent over the previous year in 1 year only. Enough is enough. The reality is that across America, local governments, State governments, city governments, county governments are making real dollar cuts in their spending. Now, to its credit, the Nussle budget says, we ought to scale back. It walls off certain areas, but it says we ought to at least have a 1 percent cut in some areas where we can achieve that. But the rest of the budget spends too much money.”