Political Quotes

“Madam President, this morning's Wall Street Journal has a headline which I hope America will pay close attention to: ``Raters put U.S. on notice.'' The United States of America has a credit rating, much as we do as individuals, businesses, and families. The credit rating of the United States is AAA, the very best. What does it mean? It means two things. First, that those who do business with America think it is the best place to do business--the most reliable economy, the rule of law, transparency. It says good things about America. It translates into the lowest interest rates charged when America borrows money. That is a good thing because we borrow a lot of money. This AAA rating, of course, is something that is not guaranteed. You have to work for it. Countries around the world now, particularly in Europe, are struggling and failing economically, some in worse shape than others. In the Irish Times yesterday they referred to what they called the ``PIGS''. I had never seen that term before. It refers to Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. They said this week Italy was joining the PIGS, the seventh largest economy in the world, roiling in euro debt, being called on to transform and change their economies and their government to deal with their national debt. It is a tough time in the European Union, and the jury is still out about any one of those countries and how this will end. The United States is not in that situation, thank goodness. Our economy has its problems.…”