Dan Coats: “I want to thank the Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Corker, for what he just said. I want to affirm the extraordinary amount…”

“I want to thank the Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Corker, for what he just said. I want to affirm the extraordinary amount of effort he has made to not only inform this Senate body of the crisis that we face financially, but also to come forward with some very constructive solutions on how to deal with this crisis. I know he is disappointed that we were not able to reach a better solution than the one voted on today. I know he struggled to decide what was the best course to follow moving forward. In the end, he decided to support the bill as a first step; but, as he said, this is the first step of what probably will be a decade-long challenge facing all of us to successfully address this deep hole of debt we have dug for ourselves as a nation. I rise today to speak, sharing all those concerns, certainly believing that our work has just started and there is much more to do. But also as someone who decided to vote against the bill that we just had before us. I have not taken this vote lightly. For the past 1\1/2\ years, as a candidate I traveled the State of Indiana, to just about every town and city in the State, talking to thousands and thousands of Hoosiers on a day-after-day basis hearing what they had to say. If, frankly, I could categorize their thoughts into one statement, it would be a deep concern about the future of our country and a deep desire to have their elected representatives go to Washington and do everything they can to address this situation.…”