Political Quotes

“the last 2 days in the debate here, a lot has been said about the sequestration that presumably is going to happen tomorrow. I would like to speak on that subject because it is very important, particularly the history of sequestration and what has gone on here in recent weeks as we discuss this issue. In August 2011 a compromise was reached to grant President Obama's request to raise the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion. I believe that was because we had a feeling that there ought to be a $1 decrease in spending for every $1 increase in the ceiling. So that adds up to $2.1 trillion. In exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling, we Republicans in Congress asked for spending reductions. This all added up to the Budget Control Act passed on August 2, 2011. Decisions we are debating today were decided 18 months ago, so if you didn't like them in 18 months, you had an opportunity to change them. But here we are at the last minute talking about some changes. The Budget Control Act of August 2, 2011, included budget caps to cut about $900 billion in spending immediately--August 2, 2011--and then it set up a supercommittee to find at least $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction. History shows that the supercommittee could not reach an agreement. So the failure of the supercommittee to reach an agreement led to the sequestration we are now debating and facing tomorrow, which is, as we know, automatic spending reductions of $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years.…”