On the recordFebruary 4, 2010
The elements of this bill are critically important. Pay-as-you-go is essential. It is critically essential at this point in the issues being dealt with by this country. If you look back over the course of the last several years, you will see how this huge deficit has gone up over and over again. Let me just give a couple of examples of the way in which the huge debt that we have now has increased under the leadership of the opposition on the other side of the aisle here, and the previous President. One of those was the military invasion of Iraq, which was completely unjustified. There was no justification for it whatsoever. The price of that is approaching now $1 trillion. Another issue that was dealt with in the context when they were in the majority was the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America. Those tax cuts have now created the greatest concentration of wealth in the hands of the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans that this country has ever experienced since 1929, 1930.
