Political Quotes

“this resolution before us today is a sham. This resolution is a political tool, not an economic tool. If this resolution was really about improving our economy, it would proclaim the need to protect Social Security and Medicare and not ill conceived tax cuts that are plunging this country back into deficit spending. If it was about improving the economy, it would seek to explain how a projected $5.6 trillion in surpluses over 10 years have been reduced to $661 billion in just eight months. If it was about improving the economy, it would explain to the American people how we can afford $2 trillion in tax cuts, while our budget is in deficit. If it was truly about improving the economy, it would explain how three-quarters of that $2 trillion will be borrowed from Social Security, and the other 25 percent ($550 billion) will be borrowed form Medicare, which, by the way, is all of the projected surplus in Medicare. I am one of the fiscally responsible members of this body that apparently caused the tax-cut-all-all-cost sponsors of this resolution to draft it. I called for a freeze of still-to-be-enacted tax cuts that would allow us to determine how much the war on terrorism, recession and the already enacted tax cuts will cost us. I have not called for a tax increase. I have not called for a rollback of taxes. I have called for a common sense breather to assess our situation. Anyone calling this tax freeze a tax increase is suffering from a brain freeze.”