Political Quotes

“Then let me just add a few more points to my commentary on this. Let me just say that in my district in Texas, more than 190,000 people live below the poverty line. And I want to take Mr. Jackson's comments--I will say that he took the words out of our collective mouths in the Congressional Progressive Caucus that this issue of poverty is really unspoken, but is in need of raising the ante. And it's the highest rate in 17 years. The thresholds proposed in H.J. Res. 2 are completely unrealistic. Even during Ronald Reagan's Presidency, before the baby boomers had reached retirement age, swelling the population eligible for Social Security and Medicare when health care costs were lower, Federal spending averaged 22 percent of GDP. We don't have that low number that was offered in the Judiciary Committee, but it is unrealistic as this country grows. My friends, the country has gotten larger. We can't have the same percentages that we had under President Eisenhower. Only 5 years in the last 50 has the Federal Government posted an annual budget surplus. All of the years the government has been in a deficit. We must contain it and restrain it. We must raise money. We can do that. We've just got to move the various ghosts of tax pledges and other third-party restraints away from the Halls of Congress and move the blocker of doing intelligent work, and that would be a balanced budget amendment.…”