Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank Senator Isakson and appreciate his eloquent remarks on one of the great American public leaders, Richard Russell. I am honored to be in the Russell Office Building myself. Budget Crisis Mr. President, I am deeply concerned about where we stand now with the budget crisis we are facing. We have no budget action that has been undertaken in the Senate. We have not done our bit. The House has passed a budget, a 10-year budget that is historic. It is honest. It will actually change the debt trajectory of America. But the Senate has not done anything. Secret meetings are occurring. We are not told what is going on in those meetings. The deficit is clearly the largest issue facing our country at this time, I believe. Except for matters of war, it is the biggest issue, clearly, in the 14 years I have been here. We are on an unsustainable path. It cannot continue. Every expert has told us that. But we remain not focused in any public way on how to solve it. Just meetings and leaks are occurring. Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said that the debt is the greatest threat to our national security. So this extraordinary fiscal crisis is facing us. Yet this Chamber has done nothing about it. We are borrowing 40 cents of every $1 we spend. In 3 months our gross debt will be larger than our entire economy.…”