Jon S. Corzine: “I must say I am very proud to join with Senator Landrieu in sponsoring this substitute amendment for the underlying bill…”

“I must say I am very proud to join with Senator Landrieu in sponsoring this substitute amendment for the underlying bill we are debating. She put the passion into what it is that we have tried to accomplish with respect to coming up with a powerful job-creating initiative, a powerful economic growth initiative--one that sticks to the $350 billion budget level that we have agreed to in the Senate. The size is the same. Some of us might argue we should not be doing that at all, based on what we think the economy might need or the nature of it. But if we are going to have a $350 billion tax relief program, stimulus program, let's make it one that people know has efficacy and will work and is not designed to go to the elite few but to all of America's families and businesses, to everybody in America regardless of their economic position. Our proposal is designed to work for the person who makes the very least, and also for those who make whatever they are blessed with to make in our great country. It also deals with an issue that I heard the Senator from Louisiana talk about in what I think were clearly more forceful terms, about dealing with the libraries, prisoners, schools, and everything that our State and local governments are trying to deal with, by putting $50 billion into our State and local governments so they can continue to service the American people the way they are expected to.”