Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to speak about the budget and deficit issues that are facing us. The first point, which is becoming clearer and clearer to the American people, is how bad a default would be. The bottom line is very simple: America has never defaulted on its debt--nor should any country, particularly the greatest country in the world--debt that is a promise of expenditures that have already been made. When we raise the debt ceiling, we are simply saying we are going to pay our bills. The bottom line is that every family in America has to do that. If you own a mortgage, you can't say, after you have signed the mortgage and lived in the house: I am not going to pay my mortgage unless ABC happens. If you have credit card debt and you have incurred significant debt, you can't say to the credit card company: I am not going to pay that debt unless you do ABC. Yet some of our colleagues on the other side--and particularly in the House of Representatives--seem to say that. It would lead to disaster. It would lead to disaster for the government. In August America has $306 billion--this government, this Federal Government, has $306 billion in obligations and $172 billion in income. If we don't raise the debt ceiling, we are going to have awful choices: Do we pay the Social Security recipients and not the veterans? Do we pay the veterans and not those to whom we owe money? Do we say we will pay veterans but not pay people who inspect food or guard our borders?…”