Political Quotes

“I want to rise in a sense of disappointment also. I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle). It is too bad his leadership has chosen the route it has chosen today, because there were some of us that wanted to reach out, do a bipartisan budget for this country that, albeit the tax number was a little higher than we thought and there was not enough debt retirement as the Blue Dogs thought, but the real kicker in all of this is the House leadership has not only taken us out of play, they have taken their own Members out of play. It does not matter what the House does. Do you know if you read the budget document, the House will not even agree to reconcile to the same number that their White House agreed to with the Senate. I have never seen a conference report like that before. But if you read it, it is there. The intransigence of this House leadership is destroying the House of Representatives when it comes to public decisions made for and on behalf of this country. Let me say one other thing. When I came here 12 years ago, all I heard was, John, do something, please, about the horrendous debt of this nation that we are passing on to our children, a 13.5 percent mortgage on this country. Every dime of debt reduction that they talk about comes from the Social Security surplus money. You know what that is like? That is like you or I paying off our Visa charge with a MasterCard.”