Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair for the opportunity to share some thoughts, and I thank Senator Corker for his commitment and leadership on these difficult budget issues. As a businessman and someone who fabulously ran an important city in Tennessee, he knows we have to live within our means. There are limits as to what we can do and maintain a healthy financial future for America. I think that is important for all of us. I first want to respond to a couple of things Senator Reid, the Democratic leader, and Senator Durbin said earlier this morning that sort of surprised me. First of all, he said there is no plan to break the caps. I was--as the Senator from Tennessee was--with the President on Friday, and he said there was a strong push from Democratic Senators to spend above the limits of the Budget Control Act that we all agreed to in August of 2011. The Budget Control Act allowed substantial growth in spending. Instead of growing $10 trillion over the next 10 years, we would have reduced the growth of the budget to $8 trillion. It is not really a cut over the 10-year period. The President submitted a budget in February of 2012, 6 months later, that would spend $1 trillion over those cuts. The Democratic budget that just passed this year--the first time in 4 years--would have increased spending by $1 trillion over those cuts.…”