Political Quotes

“I also am honored and very appreciative of the opportunity to join this bipartisan group speaking to the Nation tonight about the fact that we cannot any longer delay dealing with the most significant threat our Nation faces--our debt and our fiscal difficulties. I was one of the members of the President's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and I had the opportunity over the past year to work on a bipartisan basis with people on that Commission who took testimony from experts, evaluated the issues, studied the economies of the world, studied the details of what was happening in the American economy, and came forward with a plan. This plan got 11 of the 18 votes on that Commission. It was required by the President's order to get 14 of the 18 votes in order to force that plan to Congress for a vote. I was disappointed that didn't happen. But let me make a couple of points of clarification. Eleven of the 18 votes represented over 60 percent of the votes of the members on that Commission. That is enough votes to pass any bill in this Senate. It is enough votes to pass any bill in the House of Representatives and to get that bill to the desk of the President. And 14 of 18 would have been over 77 percent of the votes--a margin that has rarely been met in this Congress. My point in making this clarification is to say that on a bipartisan basis, we were able to come up with a supermajority of support on the Commission for a plan.”