Jeff Flake: “I just want to echo some of the comments that have been made. My colleague from Arizona pointed out that the most…”

“I just want to echo some of the comments that have been made. My colleague from Arizona pointed out that the most important thing about a stimulus package is that it provide some stimulus. I am reminded of my growing-up years. I grew up on a ranch in Arizona; we often used when we had particularly ornery critters if we could not get them through the chute, we would use a cattle prod. It worked quite well, it stimulated them quite nicely and they ran up ahead. Sometimes by the end of the day the batteries would wear a little thin and we would be left with an instrument that did not do much. It might scare them the first time, but once you laid it on them, they would not move. It is much like the stimulus package. Once the batteries are gone, once that charge is out, once the incentive to invest, these items are out, you might as well go back to a 2 by 4 because the stimulus is not there. You can call it what you want. As my colleague from Michigan says, you might want to provide these other things, but do not call it a stimulus package. Do not assume that it is going to rev up the economy because it is not, because the items simply are not there to do it.”