Political Quotes

“Madam President, I want to say to the new Senator from Illinois, thank you for your forbearance. 10 years ago, this Senator made his maiden speech on the floor, and it was about this very same issue. Because then, a decade ago, we had the privilege of having surpluses. My maiden speech was about exactly if we did not watch out, what was going to happen is those surpluses were going to go into deficits. If we had been good stewards of our condition, we could have paid off the national debt over the course of 12 years. But we took a different direction. I am to be followed by the Senator from Minnesota, and the Senator from California. I think what we are hearing here, in a bipartisan way, after we are swallowing a bitter pill of what we are going to vote on tonight, that is going to increase the debt $900 billion, because under these economic circumstances it is the right thing to do to jump-start the economy-- I think what we are hearing now is a confluence of events that is going to bring us starkly face to face, that we are going to have to reduce the debt and we are going to have to do tax reform. Because the conditions are so raw now, it is our responsibility to explain what we see as the economic circumstances of the country, explain it to the American people, and then act on it. When emergency conditions arise, there is opportunity, and that is the opportunity to make change for the good. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.”