Political Quotes

“I know it sometimes takes a crisis to move Congress to action. We are in financial crisis mode today, and while there never is a convenient time to make hard decisions, the longer we wait, the more dramatic the required remedy will be. Americans everywhere understand that we are in trouble. When you wrap your head around the following facts and figures, it's stomach-turning that things have gotten this bad--over $56 trillion in unfunded obligation through Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; the national debt nearing $11 trillion; and China, which violates human rights and has Catholic priests and evangelical pastors in jail, and has plundered Tibet, now holds the paper on 1 out of every 10 American dollars. David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office, has said that the sum of these statistics equals storm off our coast that is strong enough to ``swamp our ship of State.'' The narrative that accompanies the staggering statistics, I believe, is even more compelling. Entitlement spending is squeezing the life out of every discretionary dollar this committee appropriates: Math and science initiatives, so that our children receive the education that will enable them to compete in the global economy; medical research initiatives that will help us find the cure for cancer, autism, and Alzheimer's; infrastructure projects to build safe roads and bridges.…”