Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in 2010, Congress passed what is known as pay-go. Pay-go was signed into law and requires that if you want to spend new money, you have to spend for it, hence the name ``pay as you go.'' The idea was that if you wanted to spend money on something, you would either need to cut spending or raise taxes, but you couldn't just simply borrow more money. And if you don't cut something, the cuts would be automatic. Except we have now waived pay-go 60 times since we passed pay-go. Debt has gone from $13.5 trillion to $30 trillion because Congress continues to evade the rules they put in place. It brings us back to the $1.9 trillion spending bill the other side just passed. They want to now waive the pay-go rule. This will be the 61st time to waive pay-go. Some will say that Republicans didn't seem to care about the debt when they voted to cut taxes. However, honest observers will note that I also forced a vote on pay-go when we cut taxes. Interestingly, every Democrat in this body at that time voted to evade the pay-go rules and add taxes to the deficit, as I am sure they will today. So do deficits matter? The answer is a resounding yes. There is no free money. When we borrow or print new money, that money must be repaid. We have racked up nearly $30 trillion in debt. That is almost 150 percent of our entire economy. We borrow $6.6 million every minute. Get that. We borrow $6.6-- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.”