Political Quotes

“this debate is coming to an end, and it never really started. We are bringing a conclusion to a process that will spend $1.1 trillion over the next 10 years, and there has never been a thoughtful discussion between the parties to figure out how we can get there from here. The Republican alternative was $440 billion, I believe. It had tax cuts. It had spending on unemployment benefits extension, food stamp extension. It had a $35 billion, $45 billion amount of spending for infrastructure, shovel-ready jobs. It was an alternative that also had a trigger that said that once the economy got back on its feet and we had two quarters of positive GDP growth, any unspent funds would be frozen, and we would look at trying to get back to a balanced budget situation. In other words, it had a slowdown provision. There is nothing in this bill that is going to slow down spending. The compromise that has been reached--$440 billion was the Republican alternative--we are going to settle on a bill of about $787 billion- plus that received no Republican votes in the House.”