Political Quotes

“So we cannot keep delaying. We cannot keep promising to do something tomorrow. We have to have a vote. We will have a vote today. We need to act today. A vote for the Democratic proposal is a vote to do nothing. It is a vote to stay in denial. It is a vote that says deficits do not matter, we can just keep on. But deficits do matter. They have always mattered. They always will matter. Some say you cannot make any savings from reducing discretionary spending. Let me show this chart because a $61 billion reduction is a reduction of the baseline. When you reduce the baseline, you save that amount every year, even if you have growth in the future years. And it adds up. It is kind of a geometrical reduction in spending and debt that we have to have, and it has been working the other way. We have been increasing dramatically. You know from your business accounting that a 7-percent return on your money doubles your money in 10 years. We had 24 percent the last 2 years. That is why the government is doubling and quadrupling in size. But this would show, according to our budget staff and the calculators, if you reduce the baseline $61 billion in discretionary spending alone, it would save $862 billion in deficit reduction over 10 years. If we were to freeze that baseline in for just 5 years, not only would we save $860 billion, but $1.65 trillion--enough money to make a real difference in one little act of $61 billion in the reduction of discretionary spending.”