Political Quotes

“I am not talking about lives. I understand that the Senator from Louisiana believes that the value of a life is not quantifiable. That perhaps is common parlance here. I know it is used differently from the agencies. That is not the question I asked. What happens, for instance, if a law says that you have to reduce the parts per trillion of a certain toxic substance to at least 10? That is what the law says. Beyond that, an agency will do a cost-benefit analysis. If the agency, after doing that cost-benefit analysis, reaches the conclusion that it makes good sense to go to, let us say, 6 parts per trillion, now, that is quantifiable. That is very quantifiable. They have gone from cost per parts per trillion in dollars. We are not now talking about lives or asthma or other kinds of problems. We are talking about parts per trillion. Under this language, since it is quantifiable, there is no escape from (b).”