Political Quotes

“I rise to speak in morning business. I wish to thank my colleague, the Democratic majority leader, for his opening remarks. He and I have been given an assignment of going to the White House each day to sit down with the leaders--Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate, as well as the President, Vice President, Secretary of the Treasury, and leaders in the President's staff--to deal with this pending crisis over the debt ceiling limit. On August 2, we are required to extend the debt ceiling of the United States of America. It is an interesting exercise which usually goes unnoticed. Senator Jeff Bingaman from New Mexico presented to us yesterday a history of the debt ceiling. I was glad to learn a little bit more. In 1939, we passed a law which said we could extend the debt ceiling of the United States as needed, rather than have congressional approval of every bond issued by the Government of the United States. It made it a much more efficient way for the government to operate. As Senator Reid said earlier, since 1939, we have extended the debt ceiling 89 times, and on most every occasion it has gone unnoticed because the United States has quickly extended its debt ceiling and kept its credit rating in the eyes of the world because of our timeliness.…”