Political Quotes

“I thank the Republican leader for his efforts in this regard. I know for a fact that Senator McConnell and the leadership on our side hoped and believed it was possible to take advantage of the opportunity of the discussion over raising the debt limit to create a major alteration in our plan of spending in this country. It has been disappointing to not have been met halfway in that regard. When Senator McConnell was told the White House's plan included only a $2 billion cut next year in spending, I found it stunning. Our deficit this fiscal year will have added $1,500 billion to our debt. We are going to save $2 billion next year? This is not acceptable, and I am disappointed. I appreciate the Republican leader's efforts in that regard. I would note, as to the discussion about that the war is causing our deficit, it has been expensive over 10 years. The war on terrorism, Iraq, and Afghanistan together have cost about $1.5 trillion. This next year, we are projecting a little over $100 billion to be spent. So I will just say that the amount of the deficit this one year will equal the cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars over 10 years. The deficit this year is $1,500 billion. The cost of the war this year is about $150 billion. It is about 10 percent of the deficit we are running this year.…”