Political Quotes

“during the Clinton years we did some good things for this country, and when the history books are written, one of the things that will be paramount in those accounts will be what President Clinton did, with his allies in Congress, to turn the country around economically. During the Clinton years, we were paying down the debt by half a trillion dollars. We were spending less money than we were taking in. We can all look back to those days when Alan Greenspan told us in committees assembled that we should cut back. We were paying down the debt too quickly. When President Bush took office, there was a $7 trillion surplus over 10 years. With all of the things that he has done to bankrupt this country, we are now in debt of some $10 trillion. The bill we have before us is a bill that says this tax needs to be patched, but it should be paid for. That is what we did in the Clinton years. That is what we did in our budget that we passed here. Mr. President, we passed the first budget in this Senate in 3 years--our modest majority--by one vote, because Tim Johnson was sick. We passed again, following the Clinton example, a balanced budget where we said we believed if we are going to have new programs, they should be paid for. It is called pay-go. We said if there are going to be cuts in taxes, they should be paid for. The Speaker followed this, and we now have a bill from the House that takes care of the patch, but it pays for it.”