Political Quotes

“My amendment will reduce funding for the international programs of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by cutting $6 million out of their $8 million budget and transferring it to the spending reduction account to reduce our deficit. Now, first, Mr. Chairman, I want to commend the committee for doing excellent work in cutting the EERE budget by an overall total of 27 percent, but this program was cut less than that. It was cut by 20 percent. Mr. Chairman, as I go through the district, the number one area that I hear people say let's cut that to attack our deficit is foreign aid; and basically, this program is foreign aid. It takes scarce American jobs and sends them overseas. Now, Mr. Chairman, as you know, our unemployment rate here jumped to 9.2 percent last week. We created 18,000 jobs, and here in front of us we have a program, this international program, that creates jobs. It sure does. The problem is they're all in foreign countries. So it takes those scarce American jobs and sends them overseas. And I agree with the ranking member: Our actions today should have jobs as our focus, American jobs. That is why this amendment is essential. The United States Government now has a $1.5 trillion debt. We borrow 40 cents out of every dollar spent. We borrow money from China to finance our Federal spending and our national debt. And through this program, we spend that money in China to make Chinese manufacturers more energy efficient.…”