Leadership Quote by Bobby Scott

Budget talk rarely sounds like a confession, but Bobby Scott’s line comes close. “If we increase spending, we have got to raise taxes or any combination” is blunt to the point of awkwardness, and that’s the point: it’s an attempt to drag Washington back to arithmetic. Scott isn’t offering poetry; he’s signaling seriousness in a political culture addicted to the fantasy that you can expand government while keeping everyone’s bill unchanged.

The specific intent reads as a warning shot in negotiations: you can’t treat new programs as free, and you can’t keep promising voters upgrades without naming the tradeoffs. The phrase “or any combination” is telling. It widens the exit ramp beyond the most toxic two-word phrase in politics, “raise taxes,” toward a menu of options: mix tax increases with spending cuts, fees, closing loopholes, borrowing, or reallocations. It’s less a policy blueprint than a framing device meant to box colleagues in: if you vote for more spending, you own the pay-for.

The subtext is also defensive. Scott is preempting the standard attack that Democrats (or any spending-friendly coalition) are irresponsible by embedding fiscal responsibility inside the proposal itself. At the same time, he’s quietly challenging the bipartisan habit of hiding costs in deficits, which function like a political credit card: painless now, punitive later, and easy to pretend someone else will pay.

Context matters because “raise taxes” isn’t just an economic lever; it’s a cultural trigger. Scott’s candor tries to reset the conversation from vibes to consequences, even if candor is exactly what gets punished at the ballot box.