Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, Ireland, with a population of just 4.4 million, has been forced to get a $90 billion bailout to keep from crashing. With our debt of almost $14 trillion and trillion-dollar yearly deficits, we are very close to becoming a gigantic Ireland financially. A similar bailout for the U.S. would be over $6 trillion. In yesterday's Washington Post, columnist Fareed Zakaria, concerning what he called our economic crisis, wrote this: ``Washington is asking consumers to stop saving and start spending, while the government issues more debt and the Fed lowers rates--all measures designed to increase debt.'' ``In other words,'' he wrote, ``we are fighting a crisis caused by excessive debt by encouraging excessive debt. Is that really the best way to get growth?'' A few months ago the Post editorialized, ``It's time to stop worrying about the deficit and start panicking about the debt. The fiscal situation was serious before the recession; it is now dire.'' The problem is that the Post, like too many in this city, always attacks any attempts to cut spending. ____________________”