Political Quotes

“It was not President Reagan's fault, not really our fault. We were just wrong. The only reason I say that is because now we are not facing the same situation we were facing on projections in 1981. Now we are projecting $200 billion to $400 billion deficits as far as the eye can see. Could we be wrong? I suppose so. We were wrong in 1981. Should we base the budgeting of this Congress on the assumption that we are wrong, we are not going to have these deficits? I do not think so. I do not think so. Let us go on to 1982. We have the recession. So a number of people say to President Reagan, we are going to have to increase the taxes to cut this deficit. He was not wild about that. To the best of my knowledge, President Reagan is perhaps the only person that ever lived who actually paid 91 percent in income taxes. He hit it in Hollywood when the rates were 91 percent, and I do not think he had to count. I think he remembered 91 percent. He was reluctant to go back to a tax increase. We promised him--we the Congress--if he will give us $1 in real tax increases, we will give him $3 in real spending cuts. Mr. President, it is not logic. It is experience. He did not get a dime of those spending cuts. We did not pass them. All he got was a tax increase. None of us should start down that road again of promises in this Congress. I am not here attacking anybody as being immoral, malevolent, or anything else.”