Political Quotes

“For the record, for the fiscal year 2001, the Treasury has already spent $144 billion on interest on the national debt. That is the first 5 months of this year. Contrast that with fiscal year 2000, the Treasury spent $362 billion on interest. That is almost a billion a day. That is 20 percent of every dollar that was spent. By comparison, the military outlays total $281 billion, $81 billion less than we pay on the interest. Medicare outlays were $218 billion, $144 billion less than we spent on interest on the national debt. Again, Mr. Speaker, again Senate Majority Leader, Mr. President, please come tell me that there is a surplus, because you are dealing with projections and I am dealing with reality. The people of America are now $5.7 trillion in debt from rosy projections. The debt is real. The interest payments on the debt are real. What we owe to Social Security, what we owe to Medicare, what we owe to the military retirees, what we owe to our own civil servants is real. Let us pay our bills first before we start making new promises.”