Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to speak just momentarily about the legislation that was just passed. I, for the last 14 months traveling my State in almost every nook and cranny, have talked about the situation our country is in, talked about possible solutions, and offered legislation--the only bipartisan, bicameral legislation offered until this point--to deal with our country's deficits and debt. I had hoped that we would figure out a way to deal with $5 trillion to $7 trillion worth of spending and/or savings over the next 10 years, and finally decided that $4 trillion was the magic number. I know the markets had looked at that, the rating agencies looked at that, the people who buy our Treasurys had looked at that number. Over the course of the last few weeks, it became apparent that $3 trillion was probably the most that was going to be achieved, and then now we have ended up with this bill that passed today, and I supported that hoping to achieve $2.1 trillion to $2.4 trillion in savings over the next decade. Mr. President, obviously, like many of us in this body on both sides of the aisle who know our country is in dire straits and we have a lot of work to do, I am disappointed at the magnitude of this legislation. But I am hopeful and thankful that we have taken the first step. I think this is going to be a decade of us having to focus on our country's irresponsibility over the past many years. Both parties, no doubt, have been responsible for putting us in this situation.…”