Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank my colleague for his words. I will add to that, I hope. As we approach the end of the first session of Congress, I think it may be prudent to look back at some of the news surrounding the current state of the Nation's budgetary affairs. Unfortunately, none of the news is good. This past summer, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, which increased the last 2 years of the Budget Control Act's discretionary funding caps. The Congressional Budget Office tells us that the bill has increased their forecast of the Nation's projected deficits by $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years. I will be the first to admit that it is largely due to mandatory programs, which already have inadequate revenues. In the fall, we received final tax and spending data for fiscal year 2019. The report showed the deficit for the last fiscal year was $984 billion, even though revenues were greater than ever before. Relative to the size of the economy, that deficit--an estimated 4.6 percent of GDP--was the highest since 2012. This also marked the fourth consecutive year the deficit increased as a share of the economy. These growing deficits at a time of economic strength should be a warning sign to all. Yet hardly a whimper was heard. In October, our national debt hit the $23 trillion mark. It was in the papers for a while, but interest quickly waned. We simply cannot continue down this path.…”