Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank the Senator for his courtesy in allowing us to proceed and discuss issues at this point in time and wanted to recall for my colleagues that we are now at 776 days since the Senate has agreed to a budget. We have not passed a budget in 776 days. This is not responsible at a time in which we are having the largest deficits this country has ever seen. This year it is projected our deficit, as of September 30, when the fiscal year ends, will have been $1.5 trillion. I think this is a big issue. Last year the Budget Committee moved a budget out to the floor of the Senate, and Senator Reid chose not to bring it up, the majority leader. This year he declared that it would be foolish to bring up a budget to the floor even though he has a majority in the Senate. We can pass a budget with a simple majority. It is a priority item. He has apparently asked, and the Budget Committee has not even had a markup. The Budget Act requires a markup to begin by April 1 and a budget to be passed by April 15 so we can go about the business of funding next year's government. We need a budget. States have budgets, cities have budgets, counties have budgets. No city, county, or state that I am aware of is anything close to borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend as this Congress is doing. We are spending $3.7 trillion. We are taking in $2.2 trillion. That is a stunning number. One reason we are so out of control is we do not have a budget.…”