Political Quotes

“I would also like to thank the Senator from Arizona for the few minutes we shared on the floor. I hope more Members would do this rather than just taking turns giving speeches. These exchanges, even when we disagree, are valuable. But I agree completely with the Senator from Arizona. At the end of the day, we cannot allow our economy to lapse into this default. It would be devastating to a lot of innocent families and businesses across America and will cost us dearly in terms of our national debt. So let us hope we can find this bipartisan agreement that people are working on, even at this moment, and I hope we can do that soon. Incidentally, I wanted to say for the Record former Senator Alan Simpson, whom I came to know even better on the Bowles-Simpson commission, said: Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration. I was here. I was here. I knew him better than anybody in the room. He was a dear friend and a total realist as to politics. Mr. McCAIN. Could I remind the Senator from Illinois that, in retrospect, the one thing President Reagan said he regretted--and he regretted it--was the agreement that was made with the Democratic leadership that we would cut spending by $3 and increase taxes by $1 for every cut in spending. That was the ironclad agreement. Guess what happened. We increased taxes. The fact is, we raised taxes and did not cut spending, and that was in direct violation of the commitment he got from the Democratic leadership. I yield the floor.…”