Political Quotes

“I just came back from conducting town meetings all across the State of North Dakota. When the people I represent consider the priority in which this body and this Congress ought to move forward in response to the budget surplus, they uniformly come down, in town meeting after town meeting, with a strong consensus to do something about preserving and extending the solvency of the social security trust fund, to do something about extending the solvency of the Medicare trust fund. The preceding speaker gave an awful lot of statistics, but the bottom line reality is this: The Republican budget resolution passed before the Easter recess by this House does not extend by one day the solvency of the Medicare trust fund, the solvency of the social security trust fund. That is what has led us to this motion to instruct we are offering this afternoon. Just like the folks I represent think, I bet the folks throughout the country think that we need to take care of the existing responsibilities before we fritter away this surplus. That means doing something to extend trust fund solvency. That means that before tax cuts, we commit the resources to make sure that social security is prolonged and strengthened, that Medicare is prolonged and strengthened.”