Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of my colleague from Nebraska. As a former executive--both as mayor and Governor--he, obviously, has had to make the hard decisions necessary to get the books to balance both in the city of Lincoln and the State of Nebraska. As he has observed, the economic circumstances the State of Nebraska finds itself in today are so much better than other places around the country. Now, granted, there are lots of factors that contribute to that. Part of it has to do with the business climate in some States around the country. But, clearly, it is also a function of the discipline the State of Nebraska imposes on itself through its balanced budget amendment and the decisions of the leaders in that State, both legislators and Governors, in order to make that possible. So I think the experience of the Senator from Nebraska is valuable in helping us shape the debate that ought to occur on this balanced budget amendment. I would say one of the features of the balanced budget amendment that we are both cosponsoring is that it caps spending at 18 percent of our entire economy. That is not a number picked out of thin air. It is a number that comes from the historical level of taxation for the past 40 years. In the past five times the budget was balanced in Washington--and bear in mind five times probably in the last 40 years--spending averaged just under 18.7 percent of GDP--not too far off what the cap under the balanced budget amendment would require.…”