Jim Nussle: “Mr. Chairman, my friend from Michigan said that this is about numbers. This is not about numbers, this is about people…”

“Mr. Chairman, my friend from Michigan said that this is about numbers. This is not about numbers, this is about people and families. We can do better. Our plan helps, because we allow people to earn more. We allow families to earn more, and we allow them to keep more so they can do more. Let me tell you about a person. We are going to talk about people. I had a woman come to one of my town meetings who I think put our budget in perspective, all these speeches we hear. She had a simple message for me. She said, ``You guys out in Washington don't get it. The problem with America today is air-conditioning.'' I said, ``What are you talking about?'' She said, ``The problem is air-conditioning.'' She was 90 years old. She said, ``When I was a little girl, we used to sit out on our front porch to keep cool during the summertime.'' In the neighborhood that she lived in, neighbors would watch neighbors. She said they would take care of one another. Her neighbors were worse to the kids in the neighborhood than their own parents. They were stricter, and would take care of one another. In Iowa, a covered dish solves about everything for a neighbor. Obviously that is not what we are suggesting here. She was suggesting with the invention of air-conditioning, people began to move inside. They began to move away from their neighbors, to move away from their neighborhood.”