Political Quotes

“I rise to discuss the agreement that has been reached between the leaders in the Senate, the House Republicans and Democrats, and the President of the United States with respect to an extension of the debt limit and certain deficit reduction steps to be taken in conjunction with that action. I wish to remind my colleagues that if we fail to act, most economists believe we will face an interest rate spike. For every 1 percentage point increase in interest rates, we would add $1.3 trillion to deficits and debt over 10 years. If there was only a 200-basis point increase, that would wipe out all the deficit reduction that is in this package. Colleagues need to keep in mind the consequences of our actions and how critically important it is to prevent that interest rate spike. In addition, David Beers at Standard & Poor's, global head of Sovereign Ratings, made a statement in an interview on CNBC on July 26. The chart is headlined, ``To avoid a U.S. credit rating downgrade, S&P wants to see a bipartisan debt reduction effort.'' He said this, specifically: We will measure this matter on a number of parameters. One is, is it credible? And credibility, among other things, means to us that there has to be some buy-in across the political divide, across both parties, because politics can and will change going forward. And if there's ownership by both sides of the program, then that would give us more confidence. . . . It is not just about the number.…”