Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his observation. If I can, there is some irony in the gentleman's response. We've been talking about two items: one, the going to conference on the budget, which does, in fact, deal with prospective spending, a prospective increase in debt or deficit, because we buy more or spend more or cut revenues more. The debt limit, as the gentleman so well knows, deals with what we've already done. It doesn't have anything to do with increasing what we're going to spend. The budget does that. Now, we're not dealing with the budget, but there is discussion about dealing with this prioritization. Frankly, we should have made that determination when we spent the money, and both sides have spent a lot of money. Our country is determined to spend a lot of money. Two wars cost us a lot of money we didn't pay for. I'm not going to go through the litany--the gentleman knows that litany--but it is somewhat ironic when we're not dealing with going to conference on the budget deficit, but we're talking about a prioritization of the debt that we've already incurred. I think the American public will understand that raising the debt limit is simply a recognition of what we've already done and that we're going to pay our bills--that we're not going to welch, that we're not going to default--that the most creditworthy, greatest Nation on the face of the Earth is going to pay for what it bought.…”