Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to speak for a few minutes. My understanding is that Senator Thune is coming to the floor in a moment to offer an amendment to the continuing resolution that would reduce spending in the continuing resolution by 5 percent on discretionary items that are nondefense oriented. I want to say that I just came from a meeting with Chairman Bernanke talking about our debt situation. I know we have a Deficit Reduction Commission right now that is working on that and will have a report due on December 1. But I think everyone in this body understands it is a huge issue for our country and that right now the markets have allowed us to have lower interest rates because we are considered to be a safe haven. But the fact is, at some point in time we all understand this is going to disconnect and, in fact, we will pay higher interest rates because of our lack of ability to control our spending. I think a great first step for us to be able to walk into--hopefully, something constructed by the Deficit Reduction Commission and, if not, by our own actions this next year, where we know the No. 1 issue that threatens our economic security in this country--and by virtue of threatening our economic security, it threatens our national security--is the huge amount of spending that is taking place. I think we have all seen throughout the country what I would say is a very centered and deep concern about the amount of money we spend here in Washington.…”