Angus King

If we do not accept your recommendation, then that is $2.1 billion a year, $30 billion over 5 years that has to come from somewhere else.

It is entirely self-imposed, and we act like everybody around this committee, both parties, talks about how terrible it is.

Everybody talks about sequester and yet nobody does anything about it.

We have struggled with the issue of money and politics, always seeking to find the right balance.

I am deeply worried about the future of our democracy.

We have never before seen what is happening today.

I like the Senator's suggestion of a hub in Maine involving composites. Could we write that in the bill? I wouldn't object to that amendment.

I think something that would be really helpful to this subcommittee... if we could say, okay, if we have the full sequester as currently scheduled, here is what we would have to cut back.

I want to underscore its importance, since this is a battle every year that we have with some of our colleagues to keep the funding for this program.

Senator Murray and I have worked together to provide additional resources for just this purpose.

HUD must invest in effective oversight and management of housing authorities.

It is critical that federally subsidized properties comply with all health and safety standards.

I support that request.

I thought Senator Whitehouse made a very important point. We have got agreement here that climate change is real and that people have something to do with it.

But I guess--we know that there are costs, but we also know that there are risks.

We cannot just throw the kitchen sink at it. We have got to really think about what are the costs and the benefits.

The word was 'abrupt.' And apparently in history things like the Ice Ages did not start--I always thought it took thousands and thousands of years. In fact, it took decades.

But somebody has got to lead, and it seems to me, as you have pointed out, we are the wealthiest country in the world; we are in the best position to lead, but not be stupid.

I have a hard time telling people in Maine they have got to pay $6 for a gallon of gas if China and India do nothing.

But the real point is that in about 1860 that variation that you see was always between about 200 and 300 parts per million of CO2. In 1860, it took off, and this summer, for the first time in 3 million years, it reached 400 parts per…

And if, in fact, the correlation between CO2 and temperature holds that your chart demonstrates over into the short-term future, we are in a crisis situation.

I am asking my staff guy to bring over to you--I do not have the chart that you have, but the answer to your question, why does it change? Over the last million years, as you will see on the chart that I am about to give you, it is almost…

I think we need to explore, Madam Chair, why that happened, have colleges come and tell us why what they sell has increased two and three times the rate of inflation.

Isn't one of the things we should do, regardless of what we do about interest rates or refinancing, to make more information available to borrowers?

I think we all want to increase accountability. All I am saying is I think we have to be careful how we do it.