Political Quotes

“I rise today to oppose increasing the debt limit without putting in place any plans or mechanisms to bring our budget into balance. Increasing the debt ceiling is a technical term for what Congress is actually doing today--we've spent another $800 billion we didn't have, and now we're forced to borrow that amount of money from our children. The national debt, already $7.4 trillion, will soon rise to more than $8.1 trillion because of the irresponsible borrowing and spending of the Republican Congress. Today marks the third time in the last 3 years that the Republican Congress has been forced to raise the debt ceiling. It's the moral equivalent of applying for a credit card in your child's name, running it up all the way, raising the credit limit, charging more money on it, raising the limit again, charging even more money, and raising the limit one more time. Only Congress is doing it on a much larger scale. It's a fact that the biggest cause of the red ink is tax cuts--tax cuts that went overwhelmingly to the highest income brackets and failed to create jobs. The second biggest cause is the Republican Congress's addiction to unrestrained spending. Ten years ago, the Republican Party took power in Congress promising to restore fiscal responsibility and balance the budget. I was proud to work with President Clinton and my Republican colleagues to achieve a historic balanced budget agreement in 1997.”