Timothy Roemer: “if we were playing a baseball game, it would be three strikes and then out. This is not the third but the fourth time…”

“if we were playing a baseball game, it would be three strikes and then out. This is not the third but the fourth time that we have tried to do this bill in the right and the balanced and the appropriate and the bipartisan way. We finally have it right, and so we are playing by the House rules that we can do it three or four or five times. We finally have balance in this bill: Balance between helping our businesses in a tough time, in a recession, maybe coming out of this recession slowly, and helping them with a 30 percent first year depreciation bonus. Importantly, we have help for our families, our unemployed, our children, people across Indiana that have seen unemployment rates almost double over the past year. Madam Speaker, we have seen nationally the unemployment rate go to 7.9 million people, almost 2 million people more than a year ago. This is important because the cost of this bill has come down, too. We are coming out of the recession. Mr. Greenspan is saying good things about recovery, and the price of this has gone down from $127 billion to $99 billion, to now $41 billion over 10 years. That is good for our budget. It is good for our families. It is good for our businesses. We have arrived at the right balance. Madam Speaker, I intend to vote for this bill. It will be a bipartisan bill, and I am glad we finally have it right.”