Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this is interesting, because to follow my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), and then for him to have followed the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), I have a very urban district in Houston, but whether it is central Texas with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) or West Texas with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), we are concerned about the procedure that is happening today, because every one of us have voted for funding for the war on terrorism literally since September 11. But the procedure that my Republican colleagues have put us in today in the majority is that what happened yesterday with the rule to the supplemental began to raid the Social Security trust fund. This is a dangerous thing that will return us to the days of deficit spending. Mr. Chairman, my first term in Congress was 1993-1994, when our debt, being hidden by Social Security every year, increased $250 billion. It is estimated that now our national debt not hidden by Social Security will be $300 billion every year more. So what we are seeing is we are increasing the national charge card. I have to admit, I am concerned, because whenever we increase our debt limit, like we would on our Visa cards, then sometimes we do at least pay the minimum balances. But we are not even paying the minimum balances. We are just increasing the debt.”