Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise today to speak also on the matter of our country's unlimited spending, the fact that this last month, February--I don't know if many people know this; it was just published--we had the largest budget deficit for 1 month in recorded history of $223 billion. Those numbers were just released. I know we have some measures we are going to vote on this week regarding reductions in spending. I realize the Republican version likely will not pass and the Democratic version likely will not pass. Hopefully, we will then sit down and work out something to allow government to be open with, hopefully, a long-term CR. I know we are having a lot of difficulties in our departments as they try to manage their budgets not knowing what we are going to do. As the Senator from Nebraska mentioned, $61 billion is a drop in the bucket as it relates to trying to solve our country's problems. That is why I have brought forth something called the CAP Act. I have tried to do it and I have done it in a bipartisan way. There are numbers of people in this body who have supported the CAP Act. I think the Chair, a former Governor, and other people here--and Tennessee families who have to live within a budget--realize that around here we have absolutely no construct. We do not know where we are going in the future. We never have a plan. What we do is what we are doing this week: we fight and debate over issues that take us almost nowhere.…”