Political Quotes

“The Senator from South Dakota says ``directly impact.'' The way I read the Reinhart-Rogoff study and what I think I hear the Senator saying is that this isn't just that a debt crisis might happen--and those can happen quickly, as they warn in their book, that a crisis can happen when we are at this debt level out of the blue, things we never expected, and we are in serious financial trouble, like our 2006-2007 financial crisis that nobody predicted. But I guess what I am saying to you is, they also indicate that huge debt can impact economic growth today. And they say, when your debt reaches 90 percent of GDP, your debt is that much that it will slow growth by 1 to 2 percent. We are already at 100 percent of GDP. Does the Senator think it is possible their study, based on empirical data, might be telling us that the debt, right now--because it weakens confidence and drains investment capital--that our debt now could be slowing our economy?”