Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for yielding. As you can tell, he is a good friend of mine, and he uses hyperbole in introducing me. I appreciate that. The ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee just made a comment. I don't think anybody has clean hands on this issue. I tell the ranking member, I don't think anybody has clean hands. I don't know the exact voting pattern of the ranking member. I think he probably has been on both sides of this issue himself. I think I have been. But I will tell the ranking member, if I am here when there is a Republican President--and I do not wish for that end, of course. But if I am here, I want to guarantee you that I will vote to lift the debt limit--guarantee you. I said 3 years ago, I would never vote against raising the debt limit and keeping America's creditworthy status, never. In my view, it is intellectually dishonest to do so. This is a phony issue, and anybody who is intellectually honest with themselves knows it is a phony issue because it has no relationship to what the debt is. The debt relates to when we cut revenues or spend money, not some arbitrary limit that we theoretically put on our debt. We ought to be honest with the American public because too many people demagogue about this issue. Madam Speaker, on Monday, Senate Republicans voted against keeping the government open and paying the bills that our Nation has already incurred.…”