Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to express my support for the Republican-offered balanced budget amendment, a measure I worked on with Senators Toomey, Lee, Hatch, and Cornyn, and thank those Senators for their leadership on the issue. As Americans know, Washington has a spending problem. The Federal Government's fiscal position is unsustainable. It now borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends. Indeed, our debt has climbed to over $15 trillion and will continue to grow and threaten our economy and our jobs and our way of life unless we do something about it. Opponents say Congress should do its job. Sure, it should, but it has not. Events during the last 30 years have shown that Congress cannot be counted on to make the tough choices necessary to control spending and to balance the budget. Here is a little history. When the Senate passed a balanced budget amendment in 1982, that national debt was $1.1 trillion. In 1986, when the Senate failed by one vote to pass the balanced budget amendment, the national debt topped $2.1 trillion. By 1997, when the Senate again failed by one vote, the national debt was over $5 trillion. Today the debt is over $15 trillion. So there is no evidence that Congress has been willing to or able to reduce the debt without the Constitution requiring it. The Republican balanced budget amendment simply requires Congress to do its job.…”