Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I ask Senator LeMieux be recognized to speak for 10 minutes, and immediately following his remarks the Senate stand in recess. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The Senator from Florida is recognized. Mr. LeMIEUX. Mr. President, I rise again to talk about the unsustainable spending of this country and the debt that we cannot afford. Just a moment ago a proposal by Senator Conrad and Senator Gregg to put together a commission to tackle the spending of this country was defeated in this Chamber. I supported the proposal. It was not a perfect proposal. It was a proposal that some Republicans did not like because of the opportunity it might promote to have a tax increase. It was a proposal some Democrats did not like because they thought the spending might be too tough on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. But it was a proposal that both Democrats and Republicans, I hoped, would like enough to move forward. The spending problem we have is like a cancer. This Chamber refuses to seek any treatment. While I did not like the proposal completely, I at least supported it because I knew we needed to do something. Our spending is out of control. We have a $12 trillion debt. The deficit of last year was $1.4 trillion, more than the past 4 years in the Bush administration combined. I am new to this Chamber so the bizarre still seems bizarre to me; and perhaps the longer you are here, bizarre starts to seem normal.…”