Political Quotes

“Madam President, I want to thank the distinguished Senator from Iowa for his remarks and also his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. I found his remarks very interesting. I note that the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee is now on the floor. I have been very fortunate to serve as his ranking member, and I think that we have put a very good bill together and that his leadership has been very strong. Last week Senator Alexander brought to the floor a chart, and on that chart there were red and blue lines, and they depicted a lot about the spending patterns of this Nation, which absolutely is relevant, considering we are talking about spending. Well, I wanted to put my rendition before us since no one on the floor is asking to speak at this time. Since 2006 I have asked my staff to put together some charts on spending, which I share every week at my constituent breakfast with the constituency from California. I want to tell you a little bit about this chart. The source of this chart is the Congressional Budget Office, and it is the budget and economic outlook part of that. Going back to 2006, we looked at budget numbers, but the actual way to look at it is really outlays. What does the Federal Government spend every year? That is the number which creates the debt and creates interest on the debt. In 2006 the Federal Government spent $2.654 trillion in total.…”