Political Quotes

“I say to the Senator from Tennessee, a friend of mine has a saying that probably applies here: You broke the code. That is one of the big problems. We know we are going to need a massive amount of money to deal with the housing problem and to deal with the credit problem so when you go to the bank, they will have money to lend to you. Because this so-called stimulus bill is taking so much borrowed money--well over a trillion dollars just in the first 2 years; $3 trillion over 10 years--there is a real question about how much money we can afford to spend on these other things that, as you note, are absolutely critical. There will come a point in time when the people who buy U.S. debt--primarily foreign governments and foreign entities now--are going to believe we are so heavily in debt they are not going to trust our debt or be willing to give us as good a rate on that debt, the result of which there will come a tipping point when we cannot afford to borrow anymore. By, in effect, wasting a lot of it on this stimulus bill, I think the Senator's question is exactly on point: Will we have what is necessary when the real time comes? If I could finish with an analogy. Some of my friends on the other side have said: Well, when the house is on fire, you just go put it out. You don't worry about how much water it takes or whatever. Well, that is fine, unless the fire is going to spread to the second house and the third house and the fourth house.”