Max Baucus: “It is unfortunate that the Congress, along with the President, were unable to agree on a stimulus to the American…”

“It is unfortunate that the Congress, along with the President, were unable to agree on a stimulus to the American economy that would provide not only a boost to the American economy, but also assistance to those who have lost unemployment compensation benefits as a consequence of the decline in the economy accelerated by the events of September 11, as well as those who have lost health insurance as a consequence of losing their jobs. It is almost axiomatic that the economy is in tough shape. I do not expect with a high degree of certainty that the Congress is going to come back to where we would like to be very quickly. There are some small points which I think we should keep in mind. One is that auto sales broke records with zero percent financing, and the auto companies get most of their income from financing. So they were not making any money these past couple of months, which means reports coming out next quarter and even this quarter will not be high. The same applies to retail sales. It is the Christmas season. We know stores across the country, in order to encourage more sales, are giving tremendous discounts, which clearly discounts that company's income. We are going to have to face a stimulus package and should this next year. I hope we do it in a much more accommodating manner than we have in the last several weeks.”