Political Quotes

“I thank Congresswoman Waters. A couple of things come to mind as we were talking about the research effort. We will very soon appropriate well over $80 billion--$80 billion--for ongoing military actions in Afghanistan. We make choices here, and it seems to me that we need to understand the import and the importance of the choices we make. Now, that does not include the CIA and the State Department and the USAID--those are additional expenses over and above that the military will be using--at a time when, presumably, we are pulling out of Afghanistan. What would $1 billion of that $80 billion mean to the Alzheimer's research programs here in the United States? Well, first of all, we shouldn't appropriate $1 billion because you can't ramp up that fast; but if we spread that over 2, 3, 4 years and go from $566 million to $1.5 billion, what could be accomplished? I know that, in my own district in the Sacramento Valley, the University of California, Davis, has a very robust and breakthrough opportunity on brain research. I know in your own area of Los Angeles, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California are, together, operating major research programs on the mind, on the human brain, and how it is harmed, what is it that sets off Alzheimer's. We can do this, but these are choices that your Representatives, the American people, your Representatives are making choices here in this House about how to spend your money.…”