Political Quotes

“I rise to address the elephant in the room that almost no one is talking about. Everyone is talking about the debt limit, but almost no one is talking about the debt. I am a rancher, and I often think about policy in ranching terms. This is ``all hat, no cattle'' politics. We are starting down a track of a $29 trillion national debt. Let me say that again: a $29 trillion debt. When I first came to Congress, it was just under $10 trillion, which seemed at the time an insurmountable debt. Now, we are getting closer to $30 trillion. Certainly, if the spending that is being entertained by the majority party and the Biden administration passes, we will be well over $30 trillion. In the immortal, but edited, words of Jimmy MacMillan--``the rent is too [dang] high,'' guy--the debt is too dang high. Another sobering statistic that was raised by the last speaker, in February, the Congressional Budget Office said that the national debt would surpass the economy's size this year, meaning the debt-to-GDP ratio has long been an indicator of the country's fiscal health and countries have historically tended to decline once their debt surpassed their gross domestic product. This year, that country is us. It is the United States of America. Remember, countries historically decline once their debt passes their gross domestic product. That is what is happening here. It is a very sobering thought, but not a thought that is part of the debate for raising the debt ceiling.…”