Political Quotes

“I want to talk for a couple of moments on the financial situation of the Federal Government. This chart shows what is happening to gross Federal debt. The debt held by the public, the debt held by government accounts, mostly Social Security, what we are borrowing from Social Security, added together, equal the total amount of debt. The only way debt can be increased in the United States Government is if the House and the Senate pass legislation increasing the debt limit and then the President signs it. That is what we are doing again this year and that is partially because of the increase in Federal spending. As you can see on this chart, by 2013 we are approaching a debt of $10 trillion; $10 trillion debt compared to a budget for next year that is going to amount to about $2.2 trillion. Let me tell you one of the big problems of why we are going so deep in debt. That is because of the overzealousness of this legislative body and the White House to spend more and more money. This next chart shows the increase in spending. As you can see, the discretionary spending increases have averaged 6.3 percent each year since 1996. Since 1997, we have increased spending by 7.7 percent. Even in what is called a very frugal budget this year, with increased spending about 4.2 to 4.4 percent, still again it is about twice the rate of inflation.”