Political Quotes

“Let me try to make my points. I don't want to take less time from my colleagues. Secondly, I acknowledge that the Senator from Massachusetts did raise the issue of housing at the White House. The point I wanted to make was not that Democrats and Republicans weren't both concerned, that Democrats didn't have some good ideas. Simply, it is not fair to characterize the Republican position as wanting to deal with tax relief only, that Republicans believe housing needs to be a part of this. In fact, we would prefer to fix housing first rather than, as the Senator from Massachusetts said, we are going to do housing later. Incidentally, the bill to supposedly fix housing passed last June with both Democratic and Republican support. It was obviously not enough. Third, the Senator from Massachusetts talked about debt and said, what is the alternative to borrowing, either raise taxes or cut spending. That is true. But he said you can't do either in a recession. Actually, that is not true. As I quoted before, the National Bureau of Economic Research said this about that precise point: The best fiscal policy to stimulate the economy is a deficit-financed tax cut. The long-term costs of fiscal expansion through government spending are probably greater than the short-term gains. As between the two, some spending can help. But long-term, it costs more if you have deficit spending, and it provides for relief if you have tax cuts financed through deficit.”