Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, let me remind the Members of this Chamber why we are here today. The CARES Act passed this House with, I think, five dissenters in the entire Chamber. That was months and months ago. People exhausted the $1,200 that we allocated, based upon our tax system. And even the difficulty we had in trying to find adequate identification for those in America, as joint filers, making under $24,000 a year, single filers making under $12,000 a year. Who can live on $12,000 a year? That is $1,000 a month. People have exhausted that benefit. They have tried earnestly and seriously to overcome these obstacles that were created for them, not because of anything they did. We are not here because of malfeasance, speculation that derailed Wall Street in 2008, or corruption. We are here because of an international pandemic, and members of the American family at the lower end of the economic spectrum are hurting. When we sought advice on putting together the CARES Act, the Speaker and myself, in particular, in those very earnest days with Secretary Mnuchin, sought the advice of the best economists--former Treasury Secretaries, members of the Federal Reserve Board, people who do this every single day--and they all said you need to act with speed and determination, speed to get that money into the hands of the people who will actually spend it. And that is precisely what we did.…”