Political Quotes

“everybody knows this country faces a major deficit crisis and we have a national debt of over $14 trillion. What has not been widely discussed, however, is how we got into this situation in the first place. A huge deficit and huge national debt did not happen by accident. It did not happen overnight. It happened, in fact, as a result of a number of policy decisions made in recent years and votes that were cast right here on the floor of the Senate and in the House. Let's never forget, as we talk about the deficit situation, that in the year 2000, when President Clinton left office, this country had an annual Federal budget surplus--let me underline that, a surplus--of over $200 billion with projected budget surpluses as far as the eye could see. That was when Clinton left office. What has happened in the ensuing years? How did we go from huge projected surpluses into horrendous debt? The answer, frankly, is not complicated. The CBO has documented it. There was an interesting article on the front page of the Washington Post on April 30, a few weeks ago, talking about it as well. Here is what happened. It is not complicated. When we spend over $1 trillion on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and we forget to pay for those wars, we run up a deficit. When we provide over $700 billion in tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country and we forget to pay for those tax breaks, we run up a deficit.…”