Political Quotes

“I rise to speak about the issue in front of us. I want to spend a few minutes putting things in context. I won't repeat things I have said routinely on the floor, but I think it is important for the American people to understand where we are in our country. Using generally accepted accounting principles--these aren't my numbers--we have almost $126 trillion in unfunded liabilities and we have $17 trillion worth of debt. We have a lot of obligations in front of us. If we add up every asset in the United States--all the bank accounts, all the lands, all the possessions, everything we own, plus what we own outside of the United States--it comes to $94 trillion. In essence, we are almost $50 trillion in the hole. That is called a negative net worth. I appreciate the comments of my colleague from Delaware. I have the greatest admiration for him. I am not one of those who think we should be in shutdown. I also am not one of those who think we should just, without any solution to our problem, raise the debt limit. I would also note that we don't have to have a budget right now in the Senate because we agreed to the Budget Control Act, which sets the discretionary spending levels for the next 10 years in this country. They are set by law. What is important is that appropriations bills come through the committees--the House first and the Senate second--so that we can address the issues. We didn't do that in the Senate. They did about half of them in the House.…”