Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me just briefly address this so that we can move on. We only cut $6 million out of the $8 million. There is actually budget language further on that protects a cooperative agreement between the U.S. and Israeli Governments, so it does not eliminate all the funding; it protects that program, and there will be another amendment offered later that will make that quite specific. I understand that there is some possibility of actually getting a benefit for partnering--and I thank the ranking member for offering assistance--but honestly, I'm not sure what we're going to learn from Kazakhstan by sending money over there to provide training on industrial efficiency. I thought that we were the powerhouse of the world in industry. I thought we were the leader of the world. It's fine when we have a lot of money, but the fact of the matter is we borrow 40 cents out of every dollar, and the largest program expenditure outside of the joint program with Israel is that expenditure in China. Now, I want everyone to understand there is still money available. It's in the Department of State budget. This doesn't eliminate these programs. This just removes the Department of Energy's contribution. I will remind the body why the Department of Energy was formed years and years ago. It was to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, and it has failed to do so. It has existed for decades, failing to do the mission for which it was established.…”