Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I know we have been on this bill a long time, and I don't plan to take my full 5 minutes here. This amendment would simply prohibit funding for the Department of Energy Batteries and Electric Drive Technology program, preventing unnecessary Federal spending to the tune of about $171 million. We all know that for too long Washington has meddled too much in the energy market. Not only has the government proved itself to be ill- equipped to pick winners and losers, I think government is just plain bad at it. The list of winners is dubious at best, and it's a diverse one, from oil subsidies, ethanol mandates, to Solyndra, and now the Chevy Volt. The common thread is a seemingly endless supply, endless stream of taxpayer funding. Enter the Batteries and Electric Drive Technology program. This is one of the countless acronyms that taxpayers know little of despite helping to fund these programs to the tune of a few hundred million dollars. Interestingly, the BEDT is the very program that developed the Chevy Volt battery that we've all heard so much about and, I think, the manufacturing lines that are now stopping or diminishing. While I wholeheartedly support my colleagues' commitment to work to reduce the burden of rising energy and gasoline prices, I believe it would be imprudent to acquiesce key funding in this regard to components of the President's go green or go bust initiative. This hasn't gone too well, and I don't know why we continue to fund it.…”