Political Quotes

“I am here to introduce a bill that would address entitlement reforms and the debt ceiling called the Dollar for Dollar Act. I continue to hope Speaker Boehner and President Obama will negotiate a deal north of $4 trillion before year end. However, I think we should also prepare now for the possibility that they will not, especially based on recent conversations. The next opportunity we have to make the structural, transformative reforms to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that will save these programs and put our country on a path to fiscal solvency will be during the debt ceiling vote which will come up after the first of the year as soon as we get back. I am introducing the Dollar for Dollar legislation that will raise the debt ceiling by roughly $1 trillion in exchange for roughly $1 trillion in reforms to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This puts into legislative language many of the concepts laid out in a bipartisan Simpson-Bowles and Domenici-Rivlin proposal. This meets our obligations to older and younger Americans. Young Americans expect us to solve their fiscal issues so they are not saddled with debt and robbed of opportunity for the American dream. Seniors expect us to honor the commitments we have made to them. If we act now, we will be addressing the debt ceiling more than 3 months before we reach it. Let me walk through those changes that are well known to policymakers and Congress and the administration.…”