Political Quotes

“earlier this year the Senate voted on dueling responses through the sequestration. Democrats had a balanced plan--half revenues, half spending. Republicans tried giving flexibility with, of course, no revenues whatsoever. The Senate voted both of these down. We know these plans won't work so there is absolutely no need to repeat what has already failed. So let us try to solve the problem. I appreciate the mini lecture of my friend from Oklahoma, but it is wrong. It is good to go back and talk about what has happened. When President Bush took office--and I hate to keep bringing this up; his library is going to be dedicated in a few days--he had a surplus over 10 years of $7 trillion. When he left office, he had a debt of almost $2 trillion. Why? Was it because government got bigger? Well, it got bigger because we had two wars, paid for with the $7 trillion that should have been surplus, but it was all borrowed money. All borrowed money. During the Clinton years, when Bush stepped into office, President Clinton had created 22 million jobs in 8 years. During President Bush's 8 years, we lost 8 million jobs and lost our entire surplus. So of course those two wars and the tax cuts that were unpaid really created some problems. The Senator from Oklahoma complains about government is larger than it was 2 years ago. Well, I have talked about that. But one thing my friend fails to acknowledge is Simpson-Bowles. By the way, he voted against that--is that right?”