Political Quotes

“it is good to be considering a budget again. It has been 4 years since one has been brought to the floor. It is important that we do so because the Nation has never, ever faced a more systemic debt threat to our country. Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson both told us before the Budget Committee that this Nation has never faced a more predictable financial crisis. What they meant was that if we don't change course, we are going to have a crisis. I would say one of the things that would make our economy grow better, create jobs, confidence, and productivity gains would be for this Nation to commit itself in a responsible way over a decade of effort to balance the budget. We can do that with increasing spending every year by 3.4 percent. It does not even require a net reduction in spending each year. It will be hard. It will require us to change some course because we are on a path now to increase spending 5.4 percent a year, and that is the difference in an unsustainable path and a sustainable path. We have the budget of the majority before us, Senator Murray's budget. It is not the kind of budget we should pass. It is the kind of budget--it requires alteration, in my view, and it needs to be placed on a path to balance. I think my Democratic colleagues implicitly agree with that, because they have been talking about balance all week. We started keeping a tally on it. Look at this chart. We made this chart not too long ago.…”