Political Quotes

“I thank my courteous colleagues. Maya MacGuineas, at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget--a well-respected group--was quoted as saying, ``We are disheartened that, even in a 12-month `doc fix,' the legislation under consideration would use a budget gimmick to offset a portion of its costs. . . . Specifically, a portion of the bill's `savings' are achieved by simply shifting sequester savings set to occur in 2025 into 2024, within the Congressional Budget Office's scoring window, but this has zero actual impact on the debt. . . . Congress should remove the phony savings in this bill and replace them with real cuts or shorten the duration of the `doc fix.' '' That was an objective analysis of it. So, Mr. President, that being the case, the pending measure, H.R. 4302, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act, would violate the Senate pay-go rule and increase the deficit. Therefore, I raise a point of order against this measure pursuant to section 201(a) of S. Con. Res. 21, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2008. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.”