Political Quotes

“Before the gentleman gets into the energy bill, Mr. Speaker, and we do have a lot to talk about because that's an historic vote that is going to change this country in the long term for the better, I did want to follow up on what the gentleman talked about earlier and was finishing his remarks that about the legacy that this Congress over the past 6 years has left for our children and our grandchildren, the legacy of debt. And I want to take a little walk down memory lane, and we have talked about this before, to think about what happened in the last 4 years of President Clinton's administration, where we had 4 consecutive years of budget surplus, a surplus that was forecast as far as the eye can see. In 10 years the estimated $5.5 trillion surplus, according to CBO, from 2001 through 2010, that was the estimated surplus dollars that we were going to have. And you will recall back in the 2000 election between Governor Bush and Vice President Gore, what was the debate? The debate was what are we going to do with this surplus? We had this enormous surplus, $5.5 trillion. Are we going to pay down the debt? Are we going to shore up Social Security? Are we going to do tax cuts? Are we going to create new programs? Everyone had an idea. You know what? We're not having that debate anymore because instead of having 10 years of budget surpluses, we have had 7 consecutive years of budget deficits, and those deficits are now forecast as far as the eye can see.”