Political Quotes

“Because he came in to express that same urgency and burden. As former chairman of the Budget Committee here for so many years, he certainly understands the current fiscal situation. His views echo the voices and views of people across this country--from economists, whether they are liberal or conservative, whether they are from Harvard or Indiana University, the whole spectrum--saying this is an emergency, this is an urgent fiscal crisis we face. The time to address this crisis is now, not later. This has to rise above political considerations for 2012 because our country is on the precipice, and unless action is taken now, it may very well be too late. We have had a number of these sessions as a caucus, and we have even had some meetings with our colleagues from the other party, where experts have come before us--again, not carrying any kind of ideological bent on this thing but basically saying: Look at the numbers. Do the math. By the way, it is not calculus, it is third grade math. When we spend $3.7 trillion and our revenues are only $2.2 trillion, we have a huge $1.5 trillion deficit, and this has happened year after year after year. Cumulatively, we are well over $4 trillion in debt over just the last 3 years, and this is going to skyrocket from here. So it is not as if we are at the peak. With the aging population and the increase in mandatory spending coming down faster than we can deal with it, we are in a dire situation.…”