On the recordMarch 17, 2022
I think there are three topics. Argue with me if I misread the three topics before us. One is Ukrainian aid. I don't think we differ. And the reason I came to make a speech--and you and I have talked about this offline multiple times in the past. Let me name the three: One, there is Ukrainian aid. Two, there is the budgeting and appropriations process. And, three, there is the grandstanding that happens for audiences that don't have anything to do with persuading a single human being that is called to work in this space. In bucket one, I think you know that not a person who voted against it--the omni--voted against it because of the Ukrainian aid. So I think it is a dishonest argument. In bucket two, which--well, I am jumping in and you have the floor; so I will give it back to you. But, in bucket two, you have repeatedly used the term ``people won't vote for something because it is not perfect.'' I think that, if we could put the appropriations process of the U.S. Congress up to the American people for a referendum, the idea that you want to give it a B-plus or an A-minus, I submit you should take that to the voters of Connecticut and try to persuade them of that, because I am going to guess that, whatever the overall approval rating is of Congress, it bounces around between like 9 and 15 percent. My guess is, the way we spend money, it is lower than that. So I don't think you want to give yourself an 86 or a 92 or a 95 percent because it is not perfect.…
