Political Quotes

“Well, I guess I got to the House in 1995; my friend from Alabama came to the Senate 2 years later. I don't think we could have imagined an annual deficit of $1.5 trillion in 1 short year. We are spending that much more than we are taking in. In other words, we take in $2.2 trillion a year, approximately, and we spend $3.7 trillion a year, a difference of $1.5 trillion. I don't think we ever expected it to get that serious when the Senator from Alabama and I first got here. Clearly there is no way we can turn back the clock, but the Senator is correct. If we had enacted with just one more vote in this very body a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, clearly we would not be facing this fiscal crisis. I want to also make a very important point, and it is what all of the papers are talking about, and that is whether somehow a tax increase targeted to deficit reduction is the thing to do. Listen, my friends, Republicans and Democrats over time until recently have been united in saying tax increases are a bad thing to do. I want to ask my colleagues if they can help identify the public official who said this quote: The last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession, because that would take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole. Would any of my colleagues care to guess? Senator Lee?”