Political Quotes

“it is an honor to come tonight and talk a little about spending, talk a little bit about the budget, talk a little bit about reform, talk a little bit about entitlements, and talk a little bit about earmarks. What we want to do, Madam Speaker, over the next hour is talk a little bit about what is going on in Washington, what is broken, what needs to be fixed and have a big-picture discussion. We can talk about line items. We can talk about things down in the weeds. But what we want to talk about tonight is a philosophical difference between the Republicans and the Democrats on how we are going to get this country, Madam Speaker, back on track. Now the President's budget lays out critical fiscal issues that the Congress is going to have to deal with in the near future. Key among them are balancing the budget, promoting sustained economic growth, slowing the growth of Federal spending and addressing the coming entitlement crisis. First on deficits. Last year at this time, after several years of dramatic declines in the Federal deficit, we found ourselves on what may be described as a glide path to balance in the near term. Now that path has been interrupted, mainly due to the slowdown in the economy and the stimulus package, but we will still balance the budget. Even while addressing current challenges in the economy, the President's budget achieves balance by 2012 without raising taxes. Now let me say that again, because I think that is extremely important.…”