Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as the good Senator from Illinois suggests, we are, indeed, encumbering future generations with a debt that has risen above $40,000 per American. This is a central challenge of our time, one in which our national security leadership has cited as critical to ensuring our security and our liberty going forward. But, in my view, the balanced budget amendment that was advanced through S.J. Res. 10 earlier today would compel exactly the sort of intergenerational burdens that my good friend from Illinois suggests he seeks to avoid. Let me be clear. The requirements of that balanced budget amendment include a spending cap, a supermajority requirement to raise the national debt, and a two-thirds requirement for any increase in Federal revenue. Those in combination would compel drastic, immediate, and substantial reductions in a wide range of programs--such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits--that if imposed would have not just a short-term, very negative impact on our current economy but a significant restructuring of the longstanding relationships between individual citizens and generations. Yes, leaving a legacy of debt to the next generation is a terrible thing for us to do, but leaning on the crutch of the Constitution and the fig leaf of a constitutional amendment to avoid doing our responsibility--a job which the Senate is fully capable of doing-- avoids that responsibility to the next generation.…”