Political Quotes

“tonight, the House is being asked to approve large and growing tax cuts that make the goal of balancing the budget farther and farther out of reach. The Republican ``Contract with America'' promised to balance the budget. However, it does not make sense to make drastic and painful cuts in order to provide a tax break to wealthy Americans before we get serious about deficit reduction. While this bill pays for the tax breaks over a 5-year period, after five years the costs explode, and the federal deficit will actually increase. The long-term result of this bill will be an increase in the deficit by $630 billion over 10 years. This would be the second largest deficit increase in history, behind only the 1981 tax cuts. Mr. Speaker, this is epitome of hypocrisy. If Republicans were serious about deficit reduction, as they claim, the spending cuts included in this tax package would be applied to the deficit, rather than financing a huge tax break for the wealthy. This tax-and-spending-cut package will cut programs for the most vulnerable in our society to pay for tax breaks that will largely benefit wealthy American citizens. This bill has been called the ``crown jewel'' of the Republican ``Contract With America,'' but it appears most of the crown jewels will only go to the rich. To reduce our Federal budget deficit, we must cut every area of our discretionary budget.”