Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I couldn't stand for a more important topic. This is what I believe is the greatest domestic threat that is facing this country. Our national debt in our last 40 years of inheriting prosperity from our parents and grandparents, and in the last many years we have been borrowing and stealing prosperity from our children and grandchildren because of an insatiable appetite for spending other people's money, which is the easiest thing to do in a manner that is not in line with our revenue. There is a Founding Father who gave us a great warning. Thomas Jefferson told us, he said you should not allow your leaders to load you with perpetual debt. It is the same Thomas Jefferson who years later would make the comment which he defined in Latin terms as the ``abusive state of man.'' He said: `` . . . the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.'' Our liberty as a Nation is in jeopardy. We hear trillions of dollars that are, you know, tossed around, and I don't think we really understand the size and scope of a trillion dollars. If I stood on this floor and at a second at a time I laid a dollar bill on this podium and I didn't stop to eat or sleep, taking a second at a time to lay out that dollar bill, it would take me 11 days--you would get tired sitting in that chair, Mr. Speaker--11 days watching me count out a million dollars.…”