Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Americans are concerned that we are overspending. We are overspending by more than half a trillion dollars a year. That is more than $500 billion a year. Now, $500 billion sounds a lot more than half a trillion. As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, one of the most important things that we focus on is oversight on what exactly the Federal Government spends its money on. This critical oversight has been missing. It is critical that we follow the money because, as we say in the budget world, you can lie about the numbers, but the numbers never lie. Now, Congress evidently doesn't have the time to allocate to see how the money is spent because it takes us so much time to allocate the money to be spent. In fact, in the last 40 years we have only had four times that the budget process has been finished by October 1. The budget process for this year, which started October 1, still is not finished. We are under a continuing resolution for that. So that would leave it up to the administration. Any administration, any business is supposed to efficiently manage its area of responsibility. That hasn't been happening. Just to give an example of some responsibility, I had one young man come to me and say: You know, the job that I do in the Federal Government doesn't make any difference. Nobody ever uses what I produce. He said: I probably shouldn't tell you this because I will lose my job.…”