Political Quotes

“The Blue Dogs have tried repeatedly to do something about this abuse of our country and what is going on here with regard to the Nation's balance sheet. I do not think that people of this country realize fully how bad it is and how quickly it is deteriorating. And I am talking about our Nation's financial picture. We cannot be a strong and free country if we are in hock to every other country on Earth. We cannot be strong and free if we are broke. We cannot fix the problems our society faces as long as we are engaged in this financial madness that has been going on around here for the last 3 rac{1}{2} ext{ years}. Let me just tell you something that is going to scare you. It is not fun to talk about and nobody talks about it because it is not much of a comfort to us as Americans when we beat on our chests and say how great we are. Let me tell you what we are doing. The privately held debt, that is the debt not held by government agencies, the debt that we write checks on every year as interest, in January of 2001 was $2.96 trillion. Of that amount, foreign interest, foreign governments owned $1.01 trillion; 34 percent, in other words, of our debt in 2001 was held by foreigners. Today, that privately held debt is $4.22 trillion. Foreign interests own $1.75 trillion.”