Political Quotes

“I would call the attention of the Members to the charts beside me. First, a chart depicting the expenditures of the U.S. Government in 1962, Jack Kennedy's heyday, when the Federal Government in that fiscal year spent $106.8 billion with a very minor deficit. The deficit today runs around $150 billion. It was a different day, a different era. Half of that was defense, which is depicted in the lower yellow portion of the pie, and roughly one-sixth of the budget, a little bit more than one-sixth, is the nondefense discretionary portion, which includes the programs funded in this bill. The blue portion refers to the entitlements, which at that time consisted of Social Security and welfare and various other mandatory spending programs. The red is interest on the debt, which then was a 'big' $7 billion. Times have changed, Mr. Chairman. Today--for fiscal 1997--the chart looks entirely different. More than half is blue, the mandatory portion of the budget, which is now Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and other mandatory programs. The total amount now that we propose to spend is $1.6 trillion compared to $106 billion in fiscal 1962. Today we spend 15 times more than we spent back in Jack Kennedy's day. As I say, half of it is for mandatory spending. We raise most of the money, and we transfer it to other people. We tax the American people and pass it on to the next guy. The discretionary portion looks entirely different.…”