Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have come to the floor to discuss an amendment I am offering with Senator Gregg to create a bipartisan fiscal task force. The task force would be designed to develop a bipartisan legislative package to address the Nation's long-term fiscal imbalances. There would be a requirement that the package come before Congress for a vote. Under the rules of the Senate, our amendment requires 60 votes to pass. If we do not reach the 60-vote threshold, I will continue to push for the creation of a special process to deal with our debt, and I will fight to ensure any special process results in legislation that will get a vote in the Senate and in the House. We cannot afford another commission whose recommendations sit on a dusty shelf somewhere at the Library of Congress. I believe our country is at a critical juncture. We have seen in the previous administration the debt of the United States double. We are on course over the next 8 years for at least another doubling of the debt. And already we are reaching precarious levels, record levels--record levels that have never been seen before in this country. I believe nothing short of the economic future of the country is at stake. I point to this recent Newsweek cover from December 7 of last year entitled ``How Great Powers Fall; Steep Debt, Slow Growth, and High Spending Kill Empires--and America Could Be Next.'' Here is what the article went on to say: This is how empires decline. It begins with a debt explosion.…”