Political Quotes

“We should be buying an economic insurance policy against the possibility that the bright summer may turn into an arid fall. In the short term, on the No. 1 economic issue facing America, in my judgment we have failed. I hope I am wrong but I doubt that I am. On the calendar, we failed in the long run; we failed in the short run; we have even failed today. This bill has too much of what I would call bait and switch, where you say this is what you are going to get done. Then when the actual product arrives it is something different. We have said $1.35 trillion is going to be the outer limits, outer perimeters of tax cuts--not for May of 2001, not even for the year 2001, but for the next 11 years. We have just committed the totality of what we have said is a prudent amount of tax cuts for the next 11 years. Yet at the same time we said that, we had over half of our Members willing to vote to add $50 billion more, beyond the $1.35 trillion, in a debate earlier this morning. We know we are soon going to get a recommendation from the President and the Secretary of Defense for substantial increases in what it will cost to defend America. Senator McCain of Arizona spoke fulsomely about that yesterday. Yet no dollars are in our economic plan for that assured request for additional spending on national defense.”