Political Quotes

“it was interesting in the Committee on the Budget this morning that Dr. June O'Neill, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, came with their analysis of the President's budget. One of the conclusions of the CBO was that the President's budget is not going to be in the surplus by the year 2002, but under their projections will run a $50 billion deficit in the year 2002. So I would ask that we make a humble, respectful request to the President to resubmit a budget that balances by the Congressional Budget Office scoring. Another thing that Dr. O'Neill said was that if we continue spending the way we are today, we need an immediate 50-percent increase in income tax rates to keep the budget in balance. If we put off any decision until the year 2017, we would have to have an 87-percent increase in the income tax. That means that families' take-home pay would be cut in half, and what they can spend on health care and on clothes and on food and on transportation would end up being cut in half. I want to quickly give a presentation of what is happening in what has become the largest spending item, and that is Social Security. As you see by this chart, Social Security now takes up 22 percent of the Federal budget. And what has happened is Congress, I would suggest, made a mistake by requiring everybody to contribute to Social Security, and not putting any of that money in savings and investment.”