Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this is a historic week because we will see congressional presentations of the congressional budgets, and I believe we will see stark contrasts. Congressman Ryan of Wisconsin--nearby my home State of Illinois--is going to prepare and present to the Republicans in the House of Representatives a budget that he says will bring our overall Federal budget into balance over 10 years. It is a daunting task, and I commend him for his effort. I also have to say that we have been there before. We have heard this budget before. We know what it contains. There are several elements in the Ryan budget--as some have announced in advance--that repeat the mistakes of his earlier budgets, and some of them are grievous. We understand we need entitlement reform to make sure important programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid continue for years to come. We understand there will be some hard choices associated with efforts to make these programs more solvent. The Ryan approach continues to have something called premium support. What it boils down to is this: In the outyears, Congressman Ryan and the House Republicans want to offer seniors across America less money to pay for their Medicare insurance. They want to privatize the Medicare insurance system. Our side of the aisle--both in the House and the Senate--is dedicated to some basic principles.…”