Political Quotes

“Mr. President, well, we have arrived. We are here at last, another government shutdown averted. The government will remain open. I am not sure if that is good news or bad news. People need to know, yes, the government will stay open, and it will not be chaotic. Congress can adjourn, which is probably a good thing when Congress adjourns. But the thing about government staying open is we will pass something called a continued resolution. What does that mean? It means we are resolved to continue, continue as we have for, really, decades. We will continue to spend money, regardless of whether we have it or not. We will continue to spend money at a pace such that we will accumulate about $2 trillion in debt each year; the deficit will be about $2 trillion. Now, the spending is comprised of a lot of different areas. It is about $6.8 trillion in spending, and we bring in about $4.8 trillion in revenue. So it is about a $2 trillion mismatch. A lot of the spending is entitlements, probably two-thirds of the spending is entitlements, but this body refuses to address entitlements, so as part of the continuing spending tonight, keeping government open, all of the entitlements will be taken off board, and there will be no reforms to entitlements, no reduction in spending in entitlements. They will continue growing; some will be about 5 and 6 percent per year. Almost everybody on both sides of the aisle acknowledges that entitlements are the problem; entitlements are driving the debt.…”