Political Quotes

“I rise in the serene confidence that this measure is constitutionally doomed. That speaks to the stability of the American political system, a stability sustained in so many moments of peril by the American judiciary. By contrast, I find myself once again agitated that a measure of such enormity--I use that word in both of its meanings--comes to us for so frivolous a reason. We are told by the committee of conference that the purpose of the conference report, which is to say the bill, is to promote savings. We are further informed that this is necessary because the American people consistently cite runaway Federal spending and a rising national debt as among the top issues of national concern over the past 15 years alone. The national debt has quintupled from 1981 and 1996. Our total national debt amounted to just $1 trillion in 1981. Yet today, just 15 years later, that debt exceeds $5 trillion. Those numbers are not quite accurate, but they are approximate and will do. I have stood on this floor for on to 15 years making the plain point that the increase in debt of the 1980's was an act of policy, designed to reduce the size of the Federal Government by reducing its fiscal resources.”