Political Quotes

“No. Let me reiterate what I said. The fact is that the distinguished Senator from North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee, has not been able to bring a budget to the floor. So there is no budget. We are talking about the baseline. I believe my number is accurate with respect thereto. We are spending billions on this farm program above what we originally had decided to spend; under trade adjustment assistance, over $11 billion over the President's request--a 10-year number; in the supplemental that we just passed--a 1-year number--about $4 billion above the President's request. The highway bill is about 5.7 above the President's request. My point is that it seems to be a little contradictory when some colleagues are so concerned about the debt, and all of a sudden they are happy to spend very large sums of money above the baseline. Let us get into this debt business a little bit more. With what do we pay down debt? We pay down debt with Social Security income. Under Social Security revenues--the FICA tax--you pay in 7.6 percent and your employer pays 7.6 percent. That is Social Security. The death tax receipts don't pay for Social Security. Not one nickel of the death tax collections or estate tax collections pay for Social Security benefits--not one nickel. If we repeal the entire death tax today, Social Security wouldn't lose one nickel because that isn't where Social Security gets its money.”