Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak on the Great American Outdoors Act and on the fact that this legislation will add over $17 billion to our deficit over the next 10 years. When I first rose to speak on this bill and on my amendment to it, I closed by saying that if we could not pay for even a portion of this bill, then we were in worse trouble than I had thought. Sadly, I rise today, knowing that we, apparently, want such trouble. During this fiscal year, we have already run up a deficit of $1.9 trillion--more than twice the size of the deficit we ran at the same time last year. We also just added $2.4 trillion to our debt as the Nation necessarily responded to the coronavirus pandemic. For the past 2 years, I have been working on and consistently suggesting a way to responsibly pay for deferred maintenance at our national parks. I love our national parks and have fond memories of visiting our first national park, Yellowstone, and many other parks when I was younger and still today. That is why I offered my amendment that would have created a paid-for legacy restoration fund that would have ensured permanently dedicated revenue for our parks and their maintenance needs. For the longest time, I was told that my spending concerns would be addressed when the bill moved out of committee. When the bill moved to the floor, I asked that my amendment be included in the substitute or that it receive a vote. It was not included, and we did not receive a vote.…”