Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, the budget resolution in front of us today has a misguided focus. It double counts. It cooks the books. It does not have enough debt reduction. It has unrealistic assumptions in terms of cuts and domestic programs. It has risky tax cuts, risky indeed. Because they are simply too big, and they risk the future of Social Security. If the Republican budget resolution is fully implemented, it would use up all of the surplus funds and threaten the future of Social Security. But if it is not fully implemented, if they cannot make the domestic spending cuts of 10 percent over 5 years that they include in this document, then they are directly going to raid Social Security. That is an important subject for us to focus on. All of us know how important debt reduction is. There is bipartisan agreement on that fact. The question is who accomplishes it. Debt reduction is important. This year, 12 percent of our budget is going to pay interest debt service on our debt, $224 billion. That money crowds out private sector investment. It keeps interest rates artificially high. If we can reduce that debt, we can free up money for tax cuts or other spending needs. If we can reduce government borrowing, then the private sector interest rates will be kept lower, and we will strengthen our economy. But we have got to have a realistic budget.”