Political Quotes

“I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding. Just to recap where we are from yesterday, the whole Congress eagerly awaited to hear what the big anti-inflation initiative would be coming from the GOP side of the aisle. In the past, Richard Nixon had offered wage and price controls. Herbert Hoover, of course, had dismantled all social spending. What was going to be the big plan coming from the Republican side? The big plan is to ask for the President of the United States, when he issues executive orders, to add inflation estimates. Of course, there is no study showing that executive orders have had any impact on inflation or deflation in the country, so it seems now we are on a real wild goose chase where people are pasting all different kinds of things on it. The gentlewoman from Minnesota actually comes forward with a very interesting idea, which would be a wonderful thing to talk about if we had a real hearing in the Oversight Committee about the subject. What she is saying is that a number of States, including my State, Maryland, have adopted the genuine progress indicator as a real index of social and economic well-being in their communities. What this does is it doesn't count negative things like the costs of car accidents and asbestos poisoning as part of GDP. Right now, there are so many negative things that are included as part of GDP.…”