Political Quotes

“a week ago I visited with my colleagues about the necessity of taking a closer look at the problems of Medicare and taking advantage of the opportunity we have now with the fiscal cliff debate, to bring attention to it because I do not think it was getting enough attention. There is no greater threat to America's growth and prosperity than our uncontrolled national debt. Currently, the country's debt exceeds $16 trillion. We face the so-called fiscal cliff that could send our economy into another recession. In these difficult times, we are challenged by the people we represent to find real solutions, not short-term bandaids. As we move forward, it is clear that we must discuss spending. I emphasize that word, ``spending.'' I know President Obama is hyperfocused on increasing taxes as part of his deficit reduction proposal. I think the election shows he is legitimate in doing that, but he could have declared victory about 3 weeks ago. And in the 3 weeks since then he could have spent time talking about the expenditure side of the ledger because if we are going to be serious about reducing our debt, we must talk about spending--not sometime next year, not only after we talk about taxes, we must talk about spending and talk about it now. We need to have a thoughtful conversation that focuses on where Federal spending most calls for control and containment. That is the purpose of my charts today. That is the purpose of my remarks.…”