Pat Toomey

When the debt limit is not raised, is it true the tax revenue still comes in?

I am not in the camp that argues that under no circumstances should we raise the debt limit.

We cannot look at the deficit alone; we have to look at the tax rates and at the spending.

I happen to share the view that we should make structural changes.

I think $100 billion in near-term spending cuts would be very useful.

If we could have some new kind of limitation other than the statutory debt limit, that would give some underlying confidence.

Fundamentally it is immoral to take from our children their wealth so we can spend unearned wealth today.

Our goal is not an era of austerity but an era of prosperity.

Solving our Nation's economic and debt crisis is about more than economics. It is about protecting our way of life at home and our standing abroad as a great Nation.

The American people rebelled against wasteful Washington spending and a Government that has grown too large and too intrusive.

I think the solution is to eliminate corporate taxes altogether.

Let's not tax corporations.

I think Republicans are pretty well united in understanding that we can't tax and spend or borrow and spend our way out of this recession. So there's a high level of frustration.

I think it's fair to say the Republican Party is more divided and more fractured here in Washington than at any time since I was first elected, back in '98.

We are involved in a lot of congressional races through our political arm, and we're discovering that a lot of republicans are very disappointed with this republican congress. It most likely will manifest itself with low turnout if…

I think what accounting is supposed to be all about is providing the most accurate information, and by ``accurate,'' I think we mean information that either immediately or at least in time converges with economic reality. We do not want…

Do you think that there are the votes anywhere in this Chamber to have spending cuts when the Democrats in this Chamber would not vote for a Republican budget?

We are getting a bit far afield. I think one of the fundamental areas of disagreement that we have is the idea that my colleagues who offered the proposal, equate new spending with new tax relief, including maintaining existing tax law.

I have been the first one to say that excessive spending is a bipartisan problem.

What happened was that immediately after that tax increase in 1993, economic growth was quite slow for some period of time; and then it accelerated, despite the tax increases. But my point is, and I do not think the gentleman is disputing…

If you look at the last 6 months of this year, if you look back from October of 2003 through March of 2004 and you compare the same 6-month period to the year before, you will discover that we brought in more revenue to the Federal…

First of all, Mr. Speaker, I have introduced a budget that had lower spending and lower deficits even than the one that we passed, the Republican one. I do not know of any Democrat that voted for my alternative budget.

Business spends what it makes, government spends what it takes, and government should not take taxpayers' money and go into business against them and put these hardworking, tax-paying Americans out of business. The Toomey amendment will…

If we exclude emergencies and look at the bill from last year and the bill that is proposed, my number suggests that this is an increase of 5.54 percent, to be exact, which is, of course, way above the rate of inflation and way above the…

Under that logic the gentleman would suggest that Viet Nam was not a war, Korea was not a war, in the Persian Gulf we did not have a war, and today we are not at war. I would reject that categorically. It seems to me pretty clear that we…