Political Quotes

“We don't have to pass this bill to read this bill. We know what's in it. It's been online for 72 hours. The American people can go read it. But in case you haven't read it, let me tell you what it does. It caps spending. It caps spending consistent with the discretionary spending cuts that we passed in the budget earlier this year. And it cuts some mandatory spending in 2012, setting us on the path that Moody's and S&P say they need to ensure investors that they can have confidence in U.S. treasuries. It will create the glide path that Ben Bernanke has told us over and over that we need to bring spending under 20 percent of GDP. And it will pass a balanced budget amendment, like the vast majority of States have. This is the way to implement what we need to raise our debt ceiling. We know that we cannot default on our debt, so we will raise our debt ceiling in a way that Standard & Poor's and Moody's have said they need to see in order to assure our borrowers that our currency is valuable, that our obligations will be met, and that we are going to get our spending under control. As the chairman of the House Budget Committee said a few minutes ago, when we passed his budget, we passed a plan that would broaden the base of taxes and lower the rate, that would not cut Medicare for seniors, for people over 55 years of age who aren't yet on Medicare, did not touch Social Security, and yet would preserve for the American people the decisions that this country was founded on.”