Political Quotes

“If I might just add, I was the insurance commissioner in California twice, first in the early 1990s, and then again from 2003 to 2007 or 2008. During that period of time, we had many emergencies in California. We had fires and earthquakes, and always we could count on the Federal Government immediately providing assistance. Sometimes fast, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, of dollars made available immediately to rebuild. And it was never, never a question of having to take money away from an existing program so that aid could be brought to California. When the hurricane went through New Orleans, nobody said, well, we're going to take care of New Orleans and we're going to cut education or we're going to cut research. They simply put the money together during the Republican, the Bush period, to rebuild New Orleans. And that was a multi-billion-dollar project. Now here we are with these disasters in the Northeast. And our Republicans are demanding an offset, that is, in order to provide money to rebuild the Northeast, we're going to have to cut out the research for advanced auto technology. This is the future of the American auto industry. This is how to build a better electric motor for a car, a better battery so that we can make those things in America rather than importing them from China or Korea or Japan.…”