Political Quotes

“I am here because I was on the floor the other day and I heard--while I was waiting my turn to speak-- Senator Hatch give a speech. I have the very highest regard for my friend, the Senator from Utah, and his speech was very thoughtful. It was passionate. It was thorough. I thought it deserved a respectful response and so I am here to respond to that and I hope to begin a debate or engage in a debate, if not begin it. Senator Hatch was talking about the fiscal situation, and he framed his remarks with the observation that our $16.4 trillion debt is too high and the observation that ``annual trillion-dollar deficits have become the norm with the current administration.'' Senator Hatch is certainly right that debt is too high and annual trillion-dollar deficits have indeed briefly become the norm. But I would suggest that is not the norm recently because of this administration; it is the norm because the economy collapsed. We all remember the economy collapsed. To withdraw Federal spending from a collapsing economy is only to make things worse. The economic collapse created these deficits and, as the economy recovers, we can draw them down. There is not agreement on that. Some have preached austerity as the way forward when the economy collapses. When this began, there was lively debate between those who thought that stimulating the economy and supporting the economy would be more sensible than applying austerity.…”