Political Quotes

“Last week, Republicans made a serious offer to avert the fiscal cliff, and most of it was based on testimony given last year by President Clinton's former Chief of Staff, Erskine Bowles. As Mr. Bowles himself said on Sunday: ``We have to cut spending.'' Well, he's right. Washington has a spending problem. Let's be honest: we're broke. The plan that we have offered is consistent with the President's call for a ``balanced approach.'' A lot of people know that the President and I met on Sunday. It was a nice meeting, it was cordial; but we're still waiting for the White House to identify what spending cuts the President is willing to make as part of the ``balanced approach'' that he promised the American people. Where are the President's spending cuts? The longer the White House slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff. But here's what we do know: we know that the President wants more stimulus spending and an increase in the debt limit without any cuts or reforms. That's not fixing our problem. Frankly, it's making it worse. On top of that, the President wants to raise tax rates on many small business owners. Now, even if we did exactly what the President wants, we would see red ink for as far as the eye can see. That's not fixing our problem either; it's making it worse and it's hurting our economy. I think the Members know that I'm an optimist. I'm hopeful that we can reach an agreement.…”