Political Quotes

“I rise to suggest a caution flag as we rush towards this free lunch-approach to governmental fiscal policy. We cannot have a world-class military and defense, world-class health care, education, cities, and culture, and suggest that no one has to pay for it. And we talk about tax cuts today as if they are going to stimulate the economy tomorrow with some type of selective amnesia, because it was right here on this floor just 2 years ago that we passed the largest tax cut supposedly in the history of the country. And it did not stimulate our economy. Let us just take a look for a minute at where we are. We have moved from hundreds of billions of dollars of surpluses to now having hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits. We had millions of Americans who were working who are now unemployed; and, even today, the unemployment registration rate in our country has increased again. Consumer confidence is down. Housing starts are down. And every single indicator, in terms of economic health in our country, is troubling. We have heard from the Chair of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, suggesting that this tax cut is very problematic in both the short term and the long term. He cautions the Congress that our combination of both spending and tax cuts risks the fiscal health of this Nation.”