Political Quotes

“I rise once again to urge my colleagues to come together and address this debt ceiling to reduce our deficit and debt. We are at the 12th hour, and it is vitally important to the American people we move forward. I believe there is opportunity to do that. I think it is important we move forward in a way that makes sure we address the root of the problem. The problem is, we have a deficit and a debt that is out of control. As we work together to reach agreement on this very important debt ceiling issue, we need to be mindful that we have taken a big step forward in reducing the deficit and debt that our country faces. Let's start by taking just a minute to look at the numbers. Today this country has total revenues coming into the Federal Government at about $2.2 trillion. At the same time, we have expenses of $3.7 trillion, leaving an annual deficit of more than $1.5 trillion. Our debt is now in the range of $14.5 trillion. It is hard to even imagine what $1 trillion is, let alone $14.5 trillion. We are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend, and our debt is growing $4 billion a day--$4 billion a day. The unemployment is 9.2 percent, and the latest GDP growth came out for the second quarter for this year. It was an anemic 1.3 percent. We need to get our economy growing. We need to get people back to work. We need to get people working, and at the same time we have to control our spending. It is time to act.…”