Political Quotes

“I close with a reference to my grandchildren. I have five beautiful, wonderful, intelligent grandchildren. Erma and I had six. The oldest one was killed. He was taken by the Father of us all to be in God's garden. Now we have five remaining. And they are wonderful grandchildren. We are distinctly proud of our grandchildren. I would bet my right arm--my right arm-- that not one of those grandchildren has ever resorted to drugs. I would bet my left arm that not one of those grandchildren has ever used God's name in vain. So I love my grandchildren. All grandparents do, or should. Now, my good friend, Mr. Simon, says we should think of our grandchildren and not pass the debt on to them. Well, I have tried at the summit in 1990 and last year in connection with the budget deficit-reduction package to assume the payments on that debt in this generation. We started the process. President Clinton and the Congress working together have begun to move in that direction. And Mr. Bush and the Congress, as I say, in 1990 worked out a package, too. But that is the way it ought to be done. That way we do not bring on cataclysmic reverberations in the economy. We do it in an orderly way. And we ought to continue to do that. I do not like to pass on debt, either. But from the beginning, this country has had debts. There have been some years in which we have been in surplus, but throughout the two centuries we have depended upon the constitutional powers to incur indebtedness.”