Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas for yielding. I think at some time in whatever it is one does in life, there is a saying: It is rug-cutting time. What does that mean? It means to face the reality of what is in front of you right now. Don't try to paper over it, don't try to dismiss it, and don't ever think there is always going to be time sometime in the future to address a crisis that you face today. I brought with me a picture of an iceberg, and this is the way our debt looks. You only see a very small portion above the surface, Mr. Speaker. Most of the iceberg is below the surface. We talk about kitchen table economics. What do we mean by that? Well, we tell people: Hey, do you know what? We had really good revenues last year. It was $4.8 trillion. People say: That sounds like a lot of money. Yeah, but we went out, and we spent $6.1 trillion. And they say: Oh, that doesn't sound like that much of a difference. Kitchen table economics: You sit down with your wife. You look at what your earnings are, and you say: Well, gee, honey, we had a pretty good year. We made $48,000. She looks and says: That is a lot of money. And you say: Yeah, but we spent $61,000. It is like: Oh, my God, we couldn't have possibly done that. What allows you to borrow more money than you should have? It is irresponsible lending, and it is irresponsible spending.…”