Chris Van Hollen: “Everyone in this body is entitled to their own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts. I wish some of our…”

“Everyone in this body is entitled to their own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts. I wish some of our colleagues would read this bill. It does not add one penny to the deficit. First, we have a speaker on the other side of the aisle complaining about the fact that it adds to the deficit when it doesn't; because the next speaker then complains about how we want to pay for it. Which is it? This bill is paid for. This bill will help small businesses just like the economic recovery bill has helped stabilize the economy. Just a little over a year ago when President Obama was sworn in, our economy was in free fall. We were headed from recession to depression. Now we are here 14 months later, the economy has begun to stabilize. We went from 5.7 percent negative growth to 5.6 positive growth, the biggest swing in growth, 10 points, in 30 years. People are beginning to go back to work. Obviously, we have not turned the corner there, but it is a vast improvement from where this country was a little over a year ago. This is another important step by assisting small businesses to keep the engine going.”