Political Quotes

“We have before us today a wartime budget. The fact is that is a difficult task to put together. We have done the responsible thing of assembling just that. It fully funds our national priorities with significant increases in defense spending because we need that for the war that is underway. Huge increases in homeland security, we need that so people will be more secure in their homes. Increases in education, increases in veterans health care, fully funding a prescription drug benefit and, quite importantly, in my judgment, by limiting the growth in the rest of government, but for the extension of unemployment benefits that we all voted for a couple of weeks ago, this budget for fiscal year 2003 is balanced. We have done the hard work of putting together a wartime budget, and my Democratic friends who are throwing stones, feigning horror, have done so without a single substantive alternative. The only idea frankly that we have heard from the left, although without the courage to put it to a vote, is to repeal last year's tax cut, raise taxes and spend more money. What would that do for Social Security? Not much. Let me suggest that the idea of raising taxes, while the economy is as weak as it is now, is a terrible idea.”