Political Quotes

“I would like to move the spotlight of the comments on the Senate floor this morning from the international scene to the domestic scene, and point to the front page headline of the New York Times, Wednesday, March 5: ``U.S. Budget Deficit Seen Rising Fast.'' This is an analysis that they report which comes from the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee. It is a startling piece of information. I will read the first two paragraphs from this article: The federal deficit is growing much more quickly than expected, even before Congress takes up President Bush's tax-cutting proposals and without factoring in the costs of a war in Iraq, Congressional analysts have concluded. Analysts for the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee have raised their estimates of this year's budget shortfall by about $30 billion, some 15 percent beyond the forecast . . . issued only five weeks ago. We come today to discuss many issues, but certainly one of the overriding issues is the state of the American economy and what we are doing on Capitol Hill to deal with the challenges we face. There was a time, not that long ago, when the Republican leaders, conservative in philosophy, really condemned the whole problem of deficits in our country and said they were dedicated to eliminating them. Now we hear from Treasury Secretary Snow and others that deficits are meaningless: Don't worry. Be happy.…”