Political Quotes

“I think at the beginning of this debate we need to put it in context. I know that I must bore my friends on the majority side of the aisle, but during my 30 years in this body, there have been essentially three economic programs adopted: One was in 1981 when we adopted what is referred to as Reaganomics. The second was in 1993 when we adopted the Clinton economic program. The third, of course, was in 2001 and 2003 when we adopted what was the Bush economic program. During the first economic program, we ran up $2.4 trillion of deficits. During the second, the Clinton economic program, which lasted for 8 years, we had $62.9 billion of surplus over 96 months. $2.4 trillion during the 12 years of the Reagan/Bush administrations, $62.9 billion surplus during the Clinton administration, and then another $2.8 trillion of deficits during the Bush economic program. The reason I raise that as we begin is because I want to tell my friends, and I know we will tell our constituents, that the message that we hear today from my good friend, Mr. Ryan--for whom I have a great deal of respect. We have a disagreement, but I do not believe that he speaks with a forked tongue, if you will. He speaks what he believes--he first of all says, correctly, that we have a deficit problem that must be dealt with by us all, those of us who serve here and with those whom we represent. We must with courage, with honesty, and, yes, with discipline address this deficit.…”