Political Quotes

“I thank all who made this better. To Senator Cornyn's question about cost: I never objected to more Border Patrol agents. I didn't know how we would pay for the bill. I hoped it would be deficit neutral. Boy, did my hopes come true. It is not deficit neutral. According to the Congressional Budget Office, we reduce the deficit in the first 10 years by $190 billion and over a 20- year period $700 billion. So the reason I didn't want to agree to 5,000 agents without somebody showing me how we would pay for it, we are borrowing enough money from our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to run the government. We don't need to do any more borrowing unless we absolutely have to. The good news is the bill we have written will create economic growth in the country at a time when we need economic growth. It will allow employers access to labor they don't have today so they won't be tempted to cheat in the future. This bill helps the economy. Don't take my word for it, take CBO's word for it. If you had some more money to spend in this bill, how would you want to spend it? Let me tell you what Senator Graham would wish to do. He would wish to hire 20,000 Border Patrol agents to let everybody in the country know I get it when we say we have got to secure the border. You are right, we have had two waves of illegal immigration. We don't need a third. And why are we doing this? Why 20,000 Border Patrol agents? That is three brigades of troops.…”