Political Quotes

“First of all, I invite the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) to come over and join the Republican party. We still believe in that philosophy that he is starting to think. Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed that there is so much rhetoric, and we are shy on some upright honesty on what is happening in Social Security. First of all, let me suggest that with a unified budget deficit last year of over $20 billion, this year, in that same way that we figure surplus and deficit, we are going to have a surplus of $70 billion. And let me also suggest that almost every Democrat on that side of the aisle last year voted for the tax cuts even though we had a much larger deficit than we do this year. And what happened? Because of the fact that there is some way to treat taxes to make it more fair to stimulate the economy we have ended up bringing in more tax revenue this year, and it has been a stimulus to a stronger economy in this country. That is part of the solution, long term, to any Social Security solution. Let me additionally suggest, Mr. Speaker, to whoever might be listening to our debate, that neither approach, the Rangel amendments, nor this rule, move in the direction of saving Social Security. All we are saying is, let us start paying down the public debt a little bit, and that is good. That is going to help a little bit.”