Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to discuss S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act. I regret to say there is a fundamental problem with this bill that we have to address. I wish it weren't so, but I am afraid it is. The bill would increase the Federal deficit by $34 billion. This violates the deficit neutrality provisions for spending that we adopted as part of the Budget Control Act just last summer. As a result, there are at least five budget points of order that lie against the bill, and I, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, will be raising points of order at the appropriate time. That means it would take 60 votes of our 100 Members in the Senate to say we don't want to agree and follow the law we passed last summer. Under the Senate rules, no committee can bring a bill to the floor that spends even one penny more than already is going to be spent under the current law or increases the deficit more than it would increase under current law. Current law is the Budget Control Act of last summer, and it was passed, as we all recall, as part of a major debate over raising the debt ceiling, so we could continue to borrow money. Borrowing at the rate of--about 40 cents of every dollar we spend. In August we agreed to modest, though insufficient savings. Although we talked about big cuts, we only managed to reduce the growth in spending, not the actual level. The debt deal established basic spending limits.…”