Marcy Kaptur: “I think when the gentleman from New Jersey reminded us that the current recession was triggered back in March of 2001…”

“I think when the gentleman from New Jersey reminded us that the current recession was triggered back in March of 2001, we have to ask ourselves, well, what happened there? What happened was again rising oil prices in the global market, which America does not control because we are totally dependent on imports, thrust us into a recession which has only gotten worse and all the pump priming on Wall Street cannot draw us out of it because we are not energy independent. Oil just went up to $33 a barrel. There is instability obviously in the Middle East, certainly in Venezuela, Colombia, all these places where we are getting our oil, and the kind of short-term stimulus package that you are talking about would be an immediate shot in the arm here in the United States of America, whether it is building bridges, whether it is putting a small tax refund in the pockets of Americans that they can go out and buy things, ordinary Americans who are having trouble meeting ends from paycheck to paycheck. But beyond that, looking at how we can create entire new industries in this country so that we do not have to send our men and women to war for oil but, rather, that we can invest here at home.”