Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the majority's spending plan that would cost jobs and threaten our economic recovery. Republicans have held the majority for 11 weeks now, and we have yet to see a jobs plan. Instead of focusing on jobs, which is the number one priority of Americans, the majority is pushing spending cuts that destroy thousands of jobs. Mr. Speaker, the majority is ignoring the warnings from economists that the sharp cuts they propose would guarantee major job losses in the public and private sectors. The Economic Policy Institute shows that the majority's plan would destroy more than 800,000 jobs. Mark Zandi, John McCain's former economic adviser, puts the job loss figure at 700,000. No matter who is right, the number is far too high. Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't particularly like public employees, but we do need to ask just who are these public employees. Just one example is the staff at the tsunami warning center. Under the majority's plan, the National Weather Service, the agency that houses the tsunami center that issued alerts after Friday's earthquake--and there was significant damage in California after the tsunami--would be cut by $126 million. These cuts would result in furloughs and office closures affecting the center's ability to issue future warnings. The type of cuts proposed by the majority does not create jobs; it destroys them.…”