Political Quotes

“I would like to put anybody on notice that there will be an amendment offered by my friend and colleague, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. Senator Reid, in my opinion, is one of the finest Members of this body. He has shown courage; he does his homework; he is a hard worker. I have great respect for him. He is one of the people I have traveled with and have come to know, and I just have tremendous respect for him. He is willing to face new ideas. But the amendment he is offering--no one should be fooled--is not a balanced budget amendment. I will go into more detail when we get into the debate after it is introduced, but it says: Estimated outlays have to match estimated receipts. Now, we permit estimation in our amendment. You have to do that. But it says outlays have to match receipts; receipts have to match outlays. That is a very different thing than requiring that estimates be balanced. Second, it says ``estimated outlays of the operating funds of the Federal Government.'' That is suggesting that we would have a capital fund and an operating fund. We do not need that. The biggest public project program in the history of humanity was our interstate highway system. It was suggested, to his credit, by President Eisenhower. But he suggested we issue bonds for it, and to the credit of a United States Senator by the name of Albert Gore--Albert Gore, Sr.--he said: Let us increase the gasoline tax and do it on a pay-as-you-go basis.”