Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlelady. This is the end of the year, and so the Republicans need a few presents for the oil industry, for the coal industry, and that's what this final weekend is all about: How do we get those presents? And so they tried and tried in this bill to roll back many, many environmental laws, but they have been unable to do so. But what they have said is just give us one thing, give us one trinket, perhaps, a symbol of our success in rolling back the laws of energy efficiency in our country. And so within this bill, the Republicans have now successfully inserted a provision which rolls back the lightbulb efficiency laws, which the companies of our country and the rest of the world must comply with. Now, what does that mean? Well, for consumers in our country, it will be $6 billion per year that they will have to pay in higher electricity bills every year that they are alive. What else does it mean? Well, it means that the coal industry is happy because they generate half the electricity in our country, so they'll burn more coal in order to generate that electricity in order for the American people to use less efficient lightbulbs. And that greenhouse gas will go up into the atmosphere, and since the Republicans don't believe the planet is warming, what do they care? Just roll back the lightbulb efficiency standards. What's the next bill that's up? Oh that one, can we give a payroll tax break to the ordinary Americans?…”