Saxby Chambliss: “It scared me for a minute, I thought we were almost engaging in a debate on the Senate floor. This could get interesting…”

“It scared me for a minute, I thought we were almost engaging in a debate on the Senate floor. This could get interesting here. I have great respect for both my colleagues who were making comments, and it will be an interesting discussion on the floor when they both have their respective numbers and we will look forward to that. I want to say to my colleague from Arizona that what he says is exactly right. Raising taxes in tough economic times is a very difficult thing to do and is not stimulative of the economy. The way we need to see revenues increased--and I don't think there is any disagreement from anybody in the Senate or in the House that the 14.5 percent of GDP we are now seeing in revenues has got to be increased. But the way we need to increase it is enacting policies, whether they be tax policies or spending policies or otherwise, that will truly grow the economy, and we can do that with the right kind of policies that will not only in the short term stimulate the economy and show an increase in revenues, but will also have the same impact on the other side of the ledger, which is reducing spending. We are now at an all-time high since World War II on the spending side, we are at an all-time low on the revenue side, and that is what has gotten us into this terrible fiscal problem we have today.…”