Eva M. Clayton: “first I think it is almost shameful that we ask the local policemen and the firemen to sacrifice their lives, and yet we…”

“first I think it is almost shameful that we ask the local policemen and the firemen to sacrifice their lives, and yet we give GM and these big corporations big tax breaks, but we do not give the families of these people those kinds of breaks. Just to use the comparison in that stimulus. There are some principles in the stimulus, and the Committee on the Budget might not agree on both sides, but they agree on the principles. The stimulus needs to be short-lived. The stimulus needs to have an effect that it would cause people to have confidence, and also the stimulus would be the one that would bring no harm in terms of increasing the deficit. Also the issue of Afghanistan and what we must do in that area, I think the gentlewoman is right. I think to the extent we fail to speak to the great gap between societies, we are creating those vacuums where dictators and terrorists come and fill that void. That is what bin Laden did in Afghanistan. That is what we find in other countries where they are harboring terrorists or governments that are unstable. So there is value in America spreading democracy or trying to stabilize those communities for our own selfish interests. It is in our interests to have stability in the Middle East. It is in our self-interests to have stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, if no more than to keep down the potential of a threat of terrorists; but it is also in our interests in the long run to have trading partners.”