Political Quotes

“I rise to speak in opposition to the amendment submitted by the Senator from South Dakota, Mr. Thune. This amendment cloaks itself in the guise of fiscal responsibility, but nothing could be further from the truth. The amendment would rescind funding from the American Recovery Act--the so-called stimulus bill--to pay for the cost of program increases for small businesses. We can all agree that we should do more to support small business, but it is nonsensical to rescind funding from the Recovery Act, which is also creating jobs. I understand all too well that some on the other side of the aisle have argued that the stimulus bill was a mistake, but the facts are proving just the opposite. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office--the CBO--released a report on the impact of those stimulus funds which have already been spent. The Congressional Budget Office report notes the extremely beneficial impact from this act. The report states that the stimulus funds are responsible for an increase of somewhere between 1.5 and 3 percent in the gross domestic product during the last quarter of 2009, and with an estimated increase in this first quarter of up to 3.9 percent. Moreover, the CBO states that the stimulus bill accounted for an increase of at least 1 million jobs in the fourth quarter of 2009, and possibly as many as 2.9 million jobs. This is something to ponder. The one thing the American people all agree upon is that we need to be doing more to create jobs.”