Political Quotes

“we have had another unproductive day. As you know, we are starting the fifth week on homeland security and the Interior appropriations bill. As I said a few weeks ago, it appears the other side does not want us to pass these two bills, and they are accomplishing what they set out to do. We are not doing the work of the country. As the Presiding Officer knows, we have lost 2 million jobs in the last 18 months. We have had the weakest economic growth in some 50 years. Business investment has been down in each of the last six quarters, the weakest trend in 50 years. There has been a $4.5 trillion loss in stock market wealth, the sharpest decline since President Hoover--$440 billion lost in 401(k) and IRA retirement savings this past year--and the median family income was down last year, the first decrease in 12 years. The Nasdaq stock exchange was down to its lowest level in 6 years. Of course, it dropped again today. The Dow Jones dropped again today. The poverty rate is up for the first time in 10 years. We have a lot of problems with the economy, and we are not addressing them. We are focused on Iraq. I have no problem focusing on Iraq, but we can focus on more than one issue, and we have not done that. I do not think that is good for the people of the State I represent, the people the Presiding Officer represents, or anyplace else in the country. I hope we can change direction from what we are doing now.”