Political Quotes

“Mr. President, these are challenging and daunting times. While we are coming out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with continued high unemployment, our economy remains fragile. The fragility is not simply a macroeconomic phenomenon. It affects every family in this country who is worried about their employment, about the future of their children, and about whether their parents will still enjoy adequate coverage under Medicare and will still be able to draw some sustenance from Social Security checks. All these worries are in the daily lives of all Americans. We have to respond to that. The most salient fact that affects most Americans is the dramatic loss of employment, beginning in 2007, 2008, as the financial crisis engulfed this country. The U.S. economy has lost about 8.8 million private sector jobs just in 2008 and 2009 alone. These were times when a Republican President continued to accumulate huge deficit spending--most of it beginning with tax cuts, which my Republican colleagues supported enthusiastically; two wars that were not paid for, which was supported overwhelmingly by my Republican colleagues; and an expansion of Part D of Medicare, which again they supported. At no time did I hear the kind of outcry about growing deficits we are hearing today. We all understand that after the 10 years of this decade--8 of which were under the Presidency of George W. Bush--we are in a very difficult deficit position.…”