Political Quotes

“tonight I and some others are going to do a one hour special order, on some of the problems, the misconceptions about the debt of the Federal Government. The policy committee that I serve on, the Republican Policy Committee, met with Art Laffer, who I consider an esteemed economist in this country. One of my questions to Art was what is worse as far as being a downside to economic growth--the debt and going deeper into debt in this country or having tax increases, and he said they are both about the same. They take private money out of circulation that could be used to expand businesses and jobs. And that brings a question that this body must consider. How big should the Federal Government be in terms of a percentage of gross domestic product? How fast should the expenditures of this Congress grow compared to inflation? We have been growing from 2 to 4 times the rate of inflation every year for the last 20 years. The elections of politicians to come up with new programs, to come up with pork barrel projects to take back to their districts probably enhances the chances that they are going to be reelected. So the tendency has been to have government grow faster than the economy, faster than the ability of the American taxpayer to pay, and certainly faster than what is good for us in terms of increasing taxes and debt.”