Political Quotes

“Madam President, we are going to have a historic vote this afternoon--historic at least in recent history--because for the first time in 3 or 4 years we are going to pass a budget--at least I certainly hope so. It is historic because, while the process was not perfect, it is a budget that was arrived at fundamentally through negotiations, through discussions, and through compromise between the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and the chairman of the House Budget Committee. We are finally talking to each other. This agreement is important. This vote is important for three basic reasons. One is that the agreement maintains the momentum of deficit reduction that has been in place here since the summer of 2011 when the Budget Control Act was passed. In fact, rather than breaking the budget numbers, it actually improves them in terms of deficit reduction by some $22 billion. And it maintains, as I said, the momentum. One of the points that has been lost in the discussion about the budget and the budget deficit is that the Federal budget deficit has fallen faster in the last 2\1/2\ to 3 years than at any time in the past 40 or 50 years. It has fallen from almost 10 percent of GDP to under 4 percent of GDP over the past 2\1/2\ years. That is progress. I think one of the problems we have around here is that often we don't know how to declare victory. We don't celebrate our successes.…”