Political Quotes

“this morning the headlines on the Congress Daily, the little newspaper that goes out on the Hill every day, says Senator Domenici recommends that the increase in the debt ceiling be used as leverage to make sure we get on a glidepath to a balanced budget. There were 160 of us, Mr. Speaker, as you know very well, that sent a letter to the President of the United States saying that we are not going to vote for an increase in the debt ceiling unless we do get on that glidepath to a balanced budget. I brought this chart this morning to explain why it is so important that we insist to the full extent of our ability that we make changes in some of those entitlement programs, make some changes in those welfare programs that are leading us to pass higher and higher debt ceiling and more and more borrowing. As my colleagues see on this pie chart, the bottom blue part of that pie chart that now represents 50 percent of the $1.6 trillion annual spending is the welfare programs and the entitlement programs, the so-called mandatory spending, now using up half of the Federal budget. As a point of reference, I would just suggest that, if we look back to the year, for example, 1955, mandatory spending only represented 3 percent of the total Federal budget spending. The Constitution of the United States says that Congress is responsible for controlling the purse strings. It is responsible for spending.”