Political Quotes

“First of all, I think we ought to suggest that if we are this far in the red already, we ought to be talking about something other than additional tax cuts. We use the adage around here that if we find ourselves in a hole, the first thing we ought to do is stop digging. This chart is actually somewhat out of date, because on the more recent numbers there is more red ink down here than this chart shows. The present situation is actually worse. But as the gentleman has suggested, they concocted a plan that they call $350 billion because they would pass a tax cut, but then in a couple of years they would what is called sunset it; that is, stop the tax cut and revert back to present law. Everyone expects that when you get to that point in time, that instead of a sunset we will have a sunrise, and continue the tax cut into the future. If we assume, as everyone does, that the tax cuts will be eventually made permanent, it is not just $350 billion but approximately $1 trillion, three times bigger, particularly if we add on the interest and other fixes that have to be made when we have those kinds of tax cuts.”