Political Quotes

“Mr. President, with the new session of the Senate and a new majority in the House and the Senate--actually, the House had the majority but the Senate has a new majority--and President Trump in the White House, one of the first things that Members of the Senate had to do is to choose which committees to serve on. I have been proud to serve on the Senate Judiciary, Finance, and Intelligence Committee in previous Congresses. This Congress, I will be joining the Budget Committee for the 119th Congress. I was particularly interested in joining the Budget Committee because one of the biggest challenges we have is to get our budget under control. With approaching $36 trillion in debt, we are paying more interest on the national debt than we are on defense. At a time when President Trump asked NATO to up their investment in their own defense to up to 5 percent of GDP, we stand about 2.7 percent of GPD here at home. Clearly, we need to rightsize our spending and our debt and reprioritize what it is we are trying to do here. National security, I believe, is the preeminent responsibility of the U.S. Congress. We will have the opportunity to pass a budget with reconciliation instructions. I am not sure how much the American people care about the process. We care about the process because we have to deal with it. But the first thing we do have to do is pass a budget. That is something we haven't done since 2017.…”