Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon before the debate on President Obama's just-submitted budget descends into the arguments over the smaller little details that, quite frankly, are not going to have that great of an effect on our whole debt and deficit issue. What I would like to do is take a look and ask the American people to take a look at the larger picture. I would like to do it with a few charts and graphs. The first chart I would like to put up really describes, from my standpoint, the root cause of the problem. It really is the size, the scope, all of the rules, all of the regulations, all of the government intrusion into our lives and the cost of government. What this graph depicts is that as of last year the Federal Government was 24 percent of the size of our economy. So 24 cents of every dollar our economy generates flows through the Federal Government. When you add on State and local governments, which are about 16 percent, the total take of government at all levels of the United States now--last year was 39.2 percent. Again, 39 cents of every dollar flows through some form of government. I do not find government particularly effective or efficient at so many things they do. To make this relative, we are watching what is happening to Greece right now. It is in flames because that social experiment is collapsing.…”