Political Quotes

“Mr. President, since I was sworn into office this January, about 6 months ago, the House and the Senate have both been understandably and properly concerned with one issue that has perhaps eclipsed every other issue that has come before us in this half-year period of time; that related to our national debt and the anticipated expiration of our debt limit which will hit in just a couple weeks. Many Americans are understandably concerned and have articulated the concern that if we pass the debt limit deadline of August 2 without raising the debt limit, there could be catastrophic financial consequences. In light of that, I, along with a number of my Republican colleagues both in the Senate and in the House, have introduced legislation called the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act to address the debt limit, to address it head on. It says we will raise the debt limit if three conditions are met: first, that we make significant cuts to domestic discretionary spending for the fiscal year 2012 budget; second, we need statutory spending caps to put us on a smooth but steady glidepath toward balancing our budget sometime within the next decade; third, we need a balanced budget amendment passed out of Congress and submitted to the States for ratification. We think all three of these steps are necessarily required before we take the significant additional step of raising the debt limit.…”