Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair. And as you have observed, this is a succinct matter. We are simply taking the debt ceiling now at $4.9 trillion and raising it to $5.4 trillion. The statutory limit on the total outstanding public debt of the United States subject to that limit will be reached on March 15, 1996 or shortly thereafter. Might I make the point here that when we speak of the public debt, we include here all the debt owed to the various trust funds of the Federal Government as, for example, Social Security trust funds which are really internal financing arrangements that do not represent debt held by private investors. Today is the third time in this fiscal year that I have offered an amendment to extend the permanent debt ceiling. On November 9, I proposed simply raising it to $4.967 trillion in order to provide time to complete action on the budget reconciliation bill. The amendment was tabled 49 to 47. On January 26, I offered an amendment to raise the debt ceiling to $5.4 trillion, which would have taken us beyond the November elections to about May of next year. And that amendment was also tabled by a very close vote, Mr. President, 46 to 45. And the amendment I have just sent does the same thing. It would bring us to about May 31, 1997. Anything sooner than that gets us involved with a Presidential election which will have occurred, a State of the Union Message, a February recess.…”