David Thomas: “I would like to talk about a number of things. First, we are talking about the farm bill, but we have taken many…”

“I would like to talk about a number of things. First, we are talking about the farm bill, but we have taken many different directions in terms of the economic stimulus. It needs to be extended. The President suggested a package. The Republicans did not have anything to say about the bill that came out of committee. It was totally Democrat. We need to make some changes in order to get this done. This isn't about the House. The only talk has been about what the House has done. They can do what they choose. We ought to do what we think is right. The President asked for an extension of unemployment benefits for 13 weeks for Americans who lost their jobs due to the terrorist attacks. I am sure some will agree with that. He asked for $11 billion for the States to help low-income workers obtain health insurance for a certain period of time. I suppose everyone would agree with that to maintain that sort of help, wouldn't they? Also, of course, in order to create some jobs, we have been talking about accelerated depreciation to encourage companies to go ahead and purchase material and purchase machinery to create jobs. That is really what it is all about. Partial expensing, tax relief for low- and moderate-income workers--these are things that are all in the package. It isn't as if everyone has a different idea, but we ought to have a chance to talk about them. We ought to have a chance to bring up those things and to decide what the majority of this body would like.”