Political Quotes

“when a family is deeply head-over-heels in debt, they don't go out and borrow even more so they can double or triple spending, even if it would help the economy. And that is exactly the situation our government is in in regard to the so-called stimulus package, which we will take up again next week. I voted against the big bailout of our financial firms both times. But the majority voted for this, and raised our national debt limit to an astounding $11.315 trillion. No one can comprehend a figure like $11.315 trillion. However, even worse, the Government Accountability Office has told us that we have over $55 trillion in unfunded future pension liabilities. If we don't bring Federal spending under control, we will soon not be able to pay all of our Social Security, veterans' pensions, and all the other things we have promised our own people with money that will buy anything. The Federal Government has become addicted to spending. The stimulus is a short-term fix that will cause even more serious problems in the very near future. Drug addicts prove every day that short-term fixes do not satisfy for very long. When another Member of this body was asked a few days ago on MSNBC that, since our house was on fire, did we not need to pour water on it? He replied, Yes, but what we are doing with this stimulus package is like pouring kerosene on that fire. The bill has some good things in it, but we simply cannot afford them.”