Political Quotes

“First of all, I want to say nice job to Chuck Fleischmann for his comments on his father. Then, before my colleague from Maryland leaves, I want to make sure that he understands that we understand the history of this whole budget process. The Nation is $16 trillion in debt. It was the President's proposal to sequester; and it was his vote, along with my vote, that passed the Budget Control Act that enacted sequester. So, many of us are not just going to come to the floor and get lectured to on this process of how do you eventually get control of this national debt. Sequester is a tough process. It's a tough pill to take. It's the first time we've ever cut real dollars. As I tell my colleagues, in the big picture of a $16 trillion debt, it's pocket lint. It's such a small percentage of our future obligations, and that's where the debate on entitlement programs has to go. It's Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the interest payment on our debt that, if we don't get control actuarially in the out-years, we will continue to have to cut the discretionary budget, which is damaging to all of those things my colleague mentioned. Yet for him to come down and profess outrage over a proposal that the President presented to this body and then to profess outrage when he voted for the bill, I think it's just the height of hypocrisy. That's not what I came down to the floor to talk about, but this gives us an opportunity to respond.…”