Political Quotes

“Madam President, first, let me reassure my friend and colleague, the leader of the Senate, that it is our view that the debt ceiling will be extended, and Leader McConnell wanted to make that crystal clear in his discussions with Leader Reid, so the two of them could work together on a plan that the Senate could pass and send over to the House, to ensure that our debt ceiling would be increased and, thus, assure the markets they need not be concerned about that fact. As I have said many times, Republicans are not going to be the ones who would throw us into default. Yesterday, I spoke on the floor about the reason Republicans are opposed to raising taxes. The President himself, last December, said raising taxes in a time of economic downturn would be a mistake, the wrong thing to do. We are still in that economic downturn. In fact, things are worse now than they were then. It is similar to a doctor treating a patient. When we diagnose what is wrong, we deal with what is wrong. We don't try to fix something else. Our problem is spending; it is not taxes. That is why we need to focus on spending rather than taxes. At the conclusion of my remarks, I will ask unanimous consent to put an op-ed from the Wall Street Journal into the Record. It is written by Michael Boskin, who makes the point very clearly that our problem is spending, not taxes, and that we should be focused on reducing spending growth, especially in entitlements.…”