Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman, very, very much. There has been much discussion. We are going to be yielding this floor to our Republican colleagues, and I see them beginning to assemble, all of them who, just 3 weeks ago, were deficit hawks. I am going to point this out, and I am going to leave it here for my colleagues who will be talking about why we ought to increase the deficit. The current structural deficit is about $500 billion. We are going to add, just this year, $115 billion on top of that. You can see that. But over the next decade, that present structural deficit will grow to nearly $1 trillion a year, and we will add to it another couple hundred billion dollars. The deficit hawks have a choice. They can live with the deficit, forget they ever were deficit hawks and just increase the deficit with this 1 percent tax bill, H.R. 1, or they could do what I call the Texas two-step. Keep in mind, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee is a Texan. The Texas two-step is first you seriously cut the revenues with this tax bill that is not a reform but, rather, a bill that actually 50 percent of the $1.5 trillion reduction goes to the American corporations and the top 1 percent. Forget about the deficit or do the Texas two-step: cut the revenues and then cut the programs. What are the programs? You mentioned Medicare. Already in the budget that passed this House with Mr.…”