Political Quotes

“But, by definition, Mr. President, the extension of the unemployment benefits is a crisis response to the fact that we find ourselves in a fairly serious recession. The fact of the matter is that we start running deficits related to the developing unemployment situation well ahead of the crisis which surrounds extended benefits. The increased payments under the regular unemployment insurance system would provoke the application of this balanced budget amendment. The Senator says if we get in a serious economic situation, surely 60 Members will vote to waive this provision. I do not want to argue whether they will or will not. You have no guarantee that they will and, in fact, a minority may not want to make that adjustment. I will leave that to one side, because the Senator from Illinios is talking about acting once we are 'in the soup,' so to speak. The way these fiscal stabilizers are established, as soon as the economy begins to weaken, we begin to go out of balance in order to compensate for weak economy. That is the success we have had for the last 50 years in offsetting the business cycles.”