Political Quotes

“to put this debate on the budget situation in context, I hope that we will keep in mind the difficulty that Congress has had over the years, and each administration in recent years, in trying to cope with this very, very difficult challenge of controlling deficits. In 1960, for example, interest payments on our national debt amounted to 6 percent of the Federal budget. Today, that figure has grown to 16 percent. That is the percentage of the total expenditures that will be required to be appropriated and paid in interest on the current debt in the next fiscal year, according to the President's budget. Last year, the Federal Government paid a total of $203 billion in interest on the existing debt. The budget just submitted by the President calls for spending $257 billion in the next fiscal year on interest on the accumulated debt. By comparison, Senators might be interested to know that if these interest costs are as they are projected to be next year by the President's budget, we will spend just about as much on interest payments as we will on national defense.”