Political Quotes

“That won't take very long. I thank my good friend from Colorado, Mr. Buck, for his leadership on this Special Order on this critical issue tonight. One of the key responsibilities, if not the number one responsibility, of the House of Representatives is to protect the fiscal and economic health of the country and the government, at least our ability to meet our obligations, our ability to fund our priorities, our ability to borrow when necessary--not to the degree that we do today--in times of crisis. I want to make a couple of key points, if I may. Before the pandemic hit, before the China virus reached our shores, our annual spending was about $4.4 trillion. Spending this year is projected to be about $6.2 trillion, so an increase of $1.8 trillion, or about 40 percent, over 4 years. The most ambitious of the somewhat serious proposals in this majority Conference to deal with the spending or to cut spending this year in this Congress is to cut about $130 billion. That is the most ambitious of what I would say is serious that is getting any traction in this Congress--in other words, to cut from a projected $1.6 trillion of nonmandatory, discretionary spending to $1.47 trillion. {time} 2120 Think about that $130 billion, which is the ambitious plan. That is the stretch goal. It represents less than 10 percent of the increase in spending from pre-COVID to today over 4 years.…”