Political Quotes

“And it's further my understanding that that offset, which is unusual in that, as the gentleman knows, during the Bush administration, as happens, we had natural disasters and emergencies-- hurricanes, floods, even earthquakes--that require local governments and local agencies and individuals to respond, and we have responded to them with assistance, but the eight times that we did that during the Bush administration, we did not offset it. We did not offset it on the theory that this was an emergency that occurred that was unplanned for and that we would, in fact, obviously pay for it, but pay for it in subsequent years. It's my understanding that the offset that is being considered is $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicle fund. The problem with that, as I see it, is we are talking about creating jobs, and the President has presented a jobs bill. I'll talk about that in just a minute. But the fund that is in question to date has created 39,000 jobs, and the loan applications in progress are projected to create 50,000 or 60,000 additional jobs. Therefore, if we use this as an offset, which would set a precedent, although I understand that precedent's not being followed for 2012, what we are doing, in my view, Mr.…”