Political Quotes

“I see this legislation, this conference report, as essentially being a prod to the American economy, which is kind of like a lethargic frog right now, not moving very far, and when this bill passes and is signed by President Obama, that American frog is going to go jumping positively all over the landscape. Now, having gotten that out of my system, may I say that you have to judge this bill not just on its face or as a matter of theory but in reality, in the context of the world we live in now. The fact is, without belaboring it, because we are living it, we are going through in this country the most severe economic emergency since the depression of the 1930s, and it is happening in a way that is unprecedented. It is not like the 1930s. So we are working very hard to figure out a way to get us out of it. What is the reality? Hundreds of thousands of jobs lost every month, people laid off, hundreds of people every month; the market going down; the value of people's homes dropping more than $4 trillion in the last year; the stock market dropping somewhere around $8 trillion; confidence sapped in our economy; no credit from the banks. So this is not a perfect piece of legislation. I do not believe I have ever seen one in my 20 years in the Senate.”