Political Quotes

“this afternoon I am going to give sort of a tutorial on Federal Government finances. This is the 195th birthday of Abraham Lincoln and, in his famous Gettysburg Address, he sort of indicated, can a Nation of the people and by the people and for the people long endure? Of course, the challenge of the Civil War was a huge challenge. But I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that a challenge even greater than the wars might be the willingness of the United States, the House and the Senate and the President, to deal with real financial problems and, of course, the financial challenge before us is overspending and overpromising. This is a pie chart of how we spend Federal Government money. We see at the bottom piece of the pie is the 21 percent that is spent on Social Security right now. Then, as we go around, Medicare is 12 percent. However, it is interesting that Medicare is expected to be a greater piece of the Federal pie, if you will, a greater percentage of total Federal spending than Social Security within the next 25 years, because it is growing very quickly. Medicaid is 6 percent, also growing, and that is growing with the increasing number of seniors that are spending all of their savings, as they have spent $40,000 or $50,000 or $60,000 per year on nursing home care, and then after all of their finances have been depleted, then they go on Medicaid and the Federal Government starts paying nursing home care. Other entitlement programs, 10 percent.…”