Political Quotes

“I would like to talk, Mr. Speaker, about what is happening with our national debt. The public debt of the United States that technically every citizen now or our kids and our grandkids eventually are going to have to pay off. Mr. Speaker, I hope every one of those candidates realizes that this talk about paying down the public debt is somewhat of an untruthful presentation of what is happening with the public debt of this country. The way we do our bookkeeping here in Washington is sometimes confusing and unquestionably very complicated. But what we have right now is a public debt, as defined in law of $5.72 trillion, $5.72 trillion, approaching $6 trillion. We made some good decisions this past year to not spend any of the Social Security surplus for other government spending. Excellent start. Excellent beginning. But still, our total national debt continues to increase. Why is the total debt of this country continuing to increase as we brag, and that is Republicans, Democrats, the President, brag that we are balancing the budget and paying down the Federal debt? Here is why. We have about 112 trust funds. The largest, of course, is the Social Security Trust Fund. But we are borrowing from all of these other trust funds also.”