Political Quotes

“Mr. President, on October 16, 1936, President Roosevelt visited the then-largest city in Ohio, the town my wife and I live in, Cleveland, OH. He spoke about why the ``trickle down'' theory does not work--this whole view that has been tried a number of times in our country: trickle down economics--that trickle down economics does not work. That is when you give major tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the country. President Roosevelt called them ``economic royalists''--a term that sounds a little out of date but maybe fairly descriptive. But President Roosevelt said when you help the wealthy get wealthier and wealthier-- my Republican colleagues call them the ``job creators,'' but it just does not work that way; the hope then is that some of that wealth they accumulate--and we do not resent their wealth, we do not envy their wealth; we just do not think it is good economic policy for Toledo or Gallipolis or Chillicothe or Cleveland--that when the wealthiest people get richer and richer, it does not really trickle down and create jobs. Forget Franklin Roosevelt for a minute. Look at two decades in very recent memory--the 1990s during the Clinton years and the 8 years during the Bush years. From 1993 to 2000, the Clinton years, we actually reduced the budget deficit to the point where there was a surplus. There was an increase in taxes on upper income people and some budget cuts.…”