Political Quotes

“I want to agree with my friend about his concern on the deficit. I know it is genuine. Frankly, I appreciate the fact that our friends on the other side of the aisle are concerned about the deficit. I will remind them, when we took the majority in this Chamber in January of 2011, the deficit was about $1.4 trillion. It is about $540 billion today. So to suggest that this majority has not been serious about lowering the deficit and has not made really tough decisions-- sometimes with my friends on the other side of the aisle, sometimes not--I think is to misstate the facts. We are concerned about the deficit. If renewing this R&D credit is irresponsible without an offset, I will point out to my friends that you did it in 2008 and in 2010 when you were in the majority, so I don't think you are being consistent here in terms of this particular measure. Finally, I want to make the point that the real key to getting out of this situation in the long term is threefold. First, obviously restraining domestic discretionary spending, we have done that, and it has been hard to do. Second, I think getting entitlement reform, we haven't done that. Hopefully, someday, we will. Third--and maybe most importantly--is getting the economy growing again, moving in a way that creates jobs first and foremost, that provides a higher standard of living for our people, but that, yes, generates extra revenue to the government.…”