Political Quotes

“Madam President, for the past few days I have heard a number of my colleagues come to the floor to discuss whether this Congress should vote to raise the limit on the national debt. As this debate has unfolded, I am beginning to hear a familiar refrain from my friends on the other side of the aisle. Instead of offering constructive criticism or original ideas of their own, my Republican colleagues keep returning to the same irresponsible politics and empty rhetoric that got us into this mess in the first place. They seek to shift the blame and hold Democrats responsible for the failed policies that led us to this point. The American people remember who really is responsible. In 2001, at the end of the last Democratic administration, our country enjoyed a $236 billion budget surplus with a projected surplus of $5.6 trillion over the next decade. But then Republicans took control of the Congress and the White House. Were they good stewards of the surplus left to us by the Clinton administration? Were they? Did they spend only what America could afford? Were they responsible with our pocketbook? After all, the decade is over. I ask, so where is the $5.6 trillion surplus? It is nowhere to be found. Republicans squandered our surplus by spending wildly on massive tax breaks for the wealthy and the special interests.…”