Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I stand today to call for bipartisan action on several things that are really critical. One of them has become routine, since it started as a bill that Democrats and Republicans did together. That was the Children's Health Insurance Program, something that my colleague from Vermont has referenced. In my State, we have been a good-government State. We have had a budget surplus for years, and, believe it or not, we relied on the fact that Congress would come through and do what they were supposed to do and reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program, but that didn't happen. As a result, we have a slight budget deficit--something we haven't had for years. But it really hit home when I called our budget director in the State and I said: How did this happen when we have had these surpluses? He said: Well, we actually thought that you guys would reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program, but you didn't. Instead, what we have seen is a tax bill that adds over a trillion dollars to the debt. Even when you take into account any economic gain from that bill, a nonpartisan group said that it would, in fact, add $1 trillion to the debt. That is what we are doing instead of reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program, which makes no sense to me. Funding for CHIP expired more than 2 months ago, even though, as I said, it is one of the success stories out of this Congress.…”