Political Quotes

“Madam President, I come to the floor to talk about the debt crisis facing this country and the opportunity we have to address this issue in a way that balances the budget and ensures the long-term fiscal solvency for future generations. The recent fiscal cliff agreement which enacted tax relief for 99 percent of Americans addressed the revenue side of the equation. But as everyone knows, revenue increases alone are not going to solve the debt crisis. In fact, the tax increases that went into effect as a part of the fiscal cliff deal generate enough revenue over the next 10 years-- and I should say if we annualize that over the next year--to fund the government for less than 1 week next year. So all the talk about the higher revenues and what that will do to address our long-term fiscal solvency and what it will do to address the deficit, if we think about it in those terms, it puts into perspective what the real problem is. We have a debate in this city and in the Congress all the time about whether we can address the huge debt we have in front of us--the trillion-dollar annual deficits--by raising taxes on the so-called rich and people in the higher income categories. That was done. That was done as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations that occurred. Remember, those taxes were all scheduled to go up. They were scheduled to go up on everybody--anybody who had income tax liability on January 1.…”