Political Quotes

“Madam President, just to respond to my friend, the ranking member of the committee--and I have a lot of respect for the ranking member. The truth is on the larger issue we are not all that far apart. The larger issue is, as a nation, we are on an unsustainable course. This is as clear as it can be, and we have to deal with it. We have a difference with respect to what we have right now. I believe we do have a budget in place for this year and next year. The place where I would agree with the gentleman is we don't have the longer term plan. The problem is, Are we really going to get all sides to get off their fixed positions right before a national election? That is a matter of judgment. I don't believe that it is going to happen. I was part of the Simpson-Bowles Commission. In fact, Senator Gregg and I were the ones who got the Commission appointed, and he and I were 2 of the 11--five Democrats, five Republicans, one Independent--who voted in favor of the long-term plan that Bowles-Simpson put before the American people that would have reduced the debt from what it would otherwise be by more than $4 trillion. Depending on what baseline you use, even more than that. That is the minimum we need to do. I actually tried to convince the Commission to do $5.6 trillion. That was my proposal to the Commission, a $5.6 trillion package of deficit reduction and debt reduction. Why did I pick that? We could balance the budget in 10 years if we did.…”