Political Quotes

“I realize a number of people in this Chamber are asking why I am doing this. First of all, I think it is important for everybody to realize that--and I certainly mean no offense to anybody in this Chamber--I did not run for the Senate because I wanted to be a Senator. I ran for the Senate because I realized we are bankrupting this Nation. I think the evidence is quite clear, if we take a look at the budget deficit for just the last 3 years: $1.4 trillion, $1.3 trillion, and for this year estimates as high as $1.65 trillion. We have incurred over $4 trillion worth of debt in just the last 3 years, and our Nation's debt stands at $14.3 trillion. We have reached our debt limit. Our debt is almost the size of our entire economy. I have been watching Washington for 32 years from Oshkosh, WI, and I realized that Washington was pretty broken. I have been here now for 6 months, and I haven't seen anything here that convinces me otherwise. The Senate has not passed a budget for over 2 years. Of the six pieces of legislation we have passed--only six pieces of legislation we have passed from this Chamber have actually become law, and of those six three dealt with last year's business. They were pieces of legislation dealing with this year's budget that should have been passed last summer. The bottom line is the Senate is fiddling while America is going bankrupt. As I mentioned, the debt ceiling has now been reached. What are we doing about it?…”