Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. America is in a very dangerous place on this budget, and it's not an unsolvable problem. We can get from where we are to where we need to be--and that is fiscal balance--if we put everything on the table and have a balanced approach. If, instead, we limit our consideration to essentially 12 percent of the budget, the so-called ``domestic discretionary''--things like low-income heating assistance, the Small Business Administration, scholarships for our kids wanting to go to college, scientific research--if we limit our attention to that 12 percent of the budget, even if we cut that entire 12 percent we would have trillion dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see. It won't work. There is a design defect here. We have aggravated it with the deal that was made to extend the tax cuts at the high end when we were here in our special session after the last election, that $750 billion that we have to borrow in order to pay for those tax cuts for the top 2 percent. We have to put everything on the table. It has to include the Pentagon, it has to include revenues, it has to include eliminating wasteful and unproductive, non-job-generating tax expenditures to mature and profitable industries like the oil industry. It has to include eliminating the ethanol subsidy, something that was promoted by the Member from Oklahoma (Mr. Sullivan). We put everything on the table. We can get from where we are to where we need to be.…”