Political Quotes

“Well, in a few days, we're going to have to resolve the fiscal cliff--ironically enough, something that the House of Representatives passed last May. In April, we set out a tax plan. In May, we set out a sequestration plan, passed it through the House, sent it to the Senate who said, We will see you during the lame duck time period. We are in the lame duck now, and this has to be resolved. We have to solve the problem. But quite frankly, the first thing we need to do is to be able to define what the problem even is. It seems that one group is talking about how the real problem is the fiscal cliff, and the other group is talking about how the real problem is the debt and the deficit. Well, what is the problem? The issue is, we have $16.3 trillion in debt as a Nation, $1 trillion or more in overspending each year for the last 4 years. Let me set the example of what this really means: in 2007, our tax revenue--how much we are bringing into the Treasury--was almost exactly what it is in 2012. From 2007 to 2012, the revenue is almost identical. The difference is, our spending has gone up $1 trillion a year from 2007 to 2012, so now that's $1 trillion total over the course of that time that's slowly built up. But each year, we've been over $1 trillion in spending. While our revenue has stayed consistent, basically, from 2007 to 2012, that dramatic spending increase has happened. We seem to identify that as the real problem. We're overspending.…”