Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I stand in strong support of my amendment No. 4312. I urge all colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to come together to pass this commonsense amendment. What is this amendment about? It is about something that is of great concern to me, representing the State of Louisiana. It is about the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. It is about the ongoing crisis in the gulf. I am afraid what it is about is an example of that now famous quote of the White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, who, around February 2009, said: We are not going to let a good crisis go to waste. He was talking about the financial crisis. I am afraid that same attitude, that same politicization of real crises is going on with the ongoing oil disaster in the gulf. This is a real crisis, an ongoing crisis, an ongoing disaster. The flow continues. It is so significant--even subtracting out the amount of oil BP is capturing, it is so significant that it is like a whole new major oilspill each and every day. It goes on and on and on. What is the provision in this bill in relation to that crisis? In this bill there is a dramatic increase in the tax to fund the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund from 8 cents per barrel to 41 cents, over a fivefold increase. If that were going into that liability trust fund, and if it were staying there for oil cleanup, we could come together and probably support that effort in a bipartisan way. But instead, what has happened?…”