Political Quotes

“I oppose the DeMint amendment to impose a year-long moratorium on congressionally directed spending projects, popularly known as earmarks, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. Rather than finding real solutions to a weakening economy and American dollar, the growing debt and job losses, and the fact that millions of Americans are losing their homes, the Senate is being asked to bow to political posturing by turning to the already much debated issue of earmarks. Discretionary spending in the Federal budget continues to be a decreasing share of the overall budget, and appropriations provisions initiated in the Congress amount to only a sliver of that. Meanwhile, the President, and many in Congress who talk so much about earmarks, seem to find no inconsistency as they push Congress every few months to approve tens of billions of additional dollars to be sent to Iraq. An analysis by two prominent economists, published last Sunday in The Washington Post, forecast that the overall, budget and off-budget cost of the Iraq war eventually will exceed an incredible one trillion dollars. And unlike the regular appropriations bills, the periodic Iraq spending bills are off the budget altogether--they go directly onto the national debt, waiting there to be paid by our children and grandchildren. Funny thing, but the President never bothers to point out to his audiences that these Iraq spending bills dwarf congressionally led appropriations items.”