Political Quotes

“this is the second truly honest budget that this Chamber has seen in 12 years. In the times of David Stockman and in the times of Richard Darman, of course there was no growth in the deficit in the outyears--although we all knew it was there. It was not there, Madam President, because the books were cooked--that is why it was not there. But what we have before this body today is a true representation of what is happening in the fiscal affairs of the Government of the United States of America and that in itself is refreshing and novel for a change. I want to commend the President and Chairman of the Office of Management and Budget, Mr. Panetta, for bringing that to us. We have a new era of budgeting now in this country that I hope will persevere beyond this administration and I suspect there are others on the other side of the aisle who share this view, that we will tell ourselves the truth about where we are with the deficit. The truth is that this budget proposal that is before us today, that carries on where the budget proposal of last year left off, will reduce the deficit in the neighborhood of over $650 billion over the next 5 years.”