Quotes About Policy

I know something about trade agreements. I was proud to help President Clinton pass the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 and create what is still the world's largest free-trade area, linking 426 million people and more than $12 trillion of goods and services.

President Obama's call for nearly a half-trillion dollars in more government stimulus when America has more than $14 trillion in debt is guided by his mistaken belief that we can spend our way to prosperity.

It's very difficult to explain to a normal working citizen the implications of what $18 trillion in debt means and what it means when the Federal Reserve buys the U.S. Treasury bonds to finance our loss every month.

Social Security represents an $11 trillion unfunded obligation. And when I say unfunded obligation, I mean we have to come up with $11 trillion at some point to make the system whole.

You can't pay for healthcare if we're sending a trillion dollars a year to dictators.

When George W. Bush entered office, the national debt was $5 trillion. When he left, it was $10 trillion. I think the administration spent too much money.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have left us with $19 trillion in debt.

It's time to permanently lower America's tax gate so that the $2 trillion in stranded U.S. profits can flow back into America to be invested in new jobs, research and growth.

When you're talking about long-term deficit reduction, $4 trillion worth, entitlement reform needs to be part of it.

I want to see the farm piece passed, but the nearly a trillion dollars in SNAP spending for food stamps is way too much.

If health care is a $2.7 trillion industry, and a huge percentage is paid by the government, then you have to be involved in politics to make a difference.

The number of jobs created under President Barack Obama's stimulus turned out to be fewer than the number we would have had if the government had done nothing - according to the Obama administration's own analysis. So we got $9 trillion of debt with almost nothing to pay for it.

When President Bush left office, the deficit was approximately $500 billion. It is now approximately now $1.5 trillion. In other words, President Obama has essentially tripled the deficit.

Public-policy-wise, if you want to be consistent, crude oil is a bulk commodity, and you should be able to export it. I would rather the crude go to U.S. refineries to get refined and then export the refined product because we get double, triple the money.

The triumph of economic liberalization has coincided with a sharp increase in income inequality.

If we want to jack up the tax rates on the really rich, the amounts of money that would bring in are trivial compared to jacking up rates on the middle class.

Taxes are not trivial - they're a huge portion of this overall economy. And that's why I focused on them.

Housing being a top-order issue for cities is something that's not trivial.

I'm not willing to commit American taxpayers' money anymore or American troops on the ground in another Middle Eastern country.

Charlie Rangel is angry about the Iraq war, the one that Henry Kissinger has told us we can't win. Thanks, Henry, but most Americans figured that out before you did. Rangel saw combat in Korea. Kissinger has only seen combat on TV. That might have something to do with why Kissinger thinks our troops should stay in Iraq even though we can't win.

Abroad, our most important policy is to support our troops and continue forward-thinking foreign policy in the war on terror - keeping our enemies on the run and hitting them before they hit us.

As costs mount, in lives and dollars, it is natural to second guess, but one lesson I hope we have learned is that the U.S. cannot go it alone in a policy that leaves American troops taking all the risk and American taxpayers paying all of the costs.

We have sent our troops to war without paying for it. Now, we are bringing them home without saying how we are paying for it.

I have a very deep concern about President Obama putting in another 21,000 troops into Afghanistan with the promise of more to come.