Political Quotes

“I am a farmer from Michigan, and I know that you are as well in your State of Florida. Agriculture today and the plight of farmers is one of the serious issues before Congress. Another serious issue that is sort of the overriding consideration of where we go in the next several months is how high should taxes be in this country and how should government spend that tax money that comes down here to Washington as we decide on the priorities for spending. This first chart is a pie chart that shows the different pieces of pie, or the percentage of spending this year that goes into several categories. Social Security takes 20 percent of all Federal spending. Social Security is the largest expenditure that we have in the Federal Government. Of course, the people at risk are the young people today that are going to be threatened with huge increases in taxes or reduced benefits in Social Security benefits. Out of the approximately $2 trillion that we will be spending this year, 2001, 20 percent goes to Social Security. The next highest is 12 appropriation bills. Twelve of the appropriation bills all together, what we spend a half a year arguing on, spending for so-called discretionary spending, discretionary meaning what Congress has some discretion over, is 19 percent of the budget. The other 13th appropriation bill is defense, and that takes 17 percent. But here is Social Security now taking much more than even defense spending, with Medicare at 11 percent.”