Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman. I want to say two things. First of all, I want to clarify, and I think I did clarify, that $800 billion clearly is in your proposal. When I said the President agrees with that $800 billion, he agrees to getting to at least $800 billion. He thinks we need more. I agree with the President; we need more. When the gentleman says the problem is wasteful spending, I disagree with the gentleman very substantially on that. The problem is not wasteful spending; the problem is spending. Whether it's not wasteful or not, if it's good spending, we need to pay for it. Now, where the gentleman and I have a very substantial disagreement, I know, is that when the gentleman and his party voted to reduce revenues by over $2 trillion, they didn't reduce spending by $2 trillion. As I said at the outset, inevitably, if you reduce revenues by $2 trillion and you up spending, which is what happened, frankly, as all of us know from 2001 to 2008, and particularly 2001 to 2006, if you up spending and reduce revenues, inevitably you have debt, just as if you buy stuff and don't pay for it, you have debt. So whether you reduce revenues or don't pay for what you buy, the result is exactly the same--debt. So that's why I say paying for is the problem. The gentleman and I have a very substantive disagreement on whether or not you ought to have to pay for tax cuts. You have to pay for it one way or the other.…”