Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlelady for yielding. You know, there is a very important number here that the American people need to identify with, and it's a number that brings it home. It's a number that's very personal in terms of personal responsibility, and that is over $40,000 per person. That's the amount of debt that each man, woman, and child in this country is responsible for. And that doesn't include entitlements. If we got into Medicare and Social Security, that number would be much larger. But just keeping it within the scheme of excluding entitlements, over $40,000. Now, you look at the young people that we have today, and the fact is that we are not--we don't come to each American and collect a check. If we did that, it all would be divided up evenly. And that's a heck of a lot of money. That's a tremendous amount of debt to start your life out with for a young person. But the fact is, that's not how we do things. You know, we kind of kick the can down the road, as I heard you use that phrase earlier. You know, we divide things up. You know, not everybody pays the same amount. And so this legacy of debt we are really following the next generation, our children, our grandchildren, future generations disproportionately. So what was $40,000 today will just grow exponentially. And that legacy of debt is not a legacy--you know, there is not a generation that doesn't want to leave this country better than what we received from our parents. But we are failing.…”