Political Quotes

“Madam President, at 2 o'clock, I believe we are going to have a series of votes, roughly somewhere around 2 o'clock. One of them is going to be on amendment No. 3389, an amendment that I offered yesterday but chose not to speak on yesterday. I would like to take about 5 minutes just to share with my colleagues what the content of this amendment is. In simple terms, it is a sales tax holiday amendment. I think we all agree, there is no partisan difference, that our economy is shut down; that we are in a period of anemic growth; and that with anemic growth there is no hope of reinflating employment. We are almost at a point where we need a shock and awe in our economy, something that gives confidence back to consumers, and, more importantly, to manufacturers of goods. We have experienced, over the last several months, a replenishment of inventory of purchases that were made in the fourth quarter, predominantly because of the holidays. What we have seen since then is a decline in, or a stagnation of, retail sales. Once we get past this replenishment period, we are going to see manufacturers who look at their workforce, not with the intention of growing it but potentially of possibly shrinking it if things do not grow with the outlook. I think we are at a point that there is not one silver bullet. I think it takes things such as tax credits to employers that help provide an avenue to bring on somebody new, but it requires something to go out the door.…”