Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I would like to rise in opposition to the gentleman's well-intentioned amendment, and it is obvious he pays attention to the math. What is important about the math of our deficit is that we haven't been growing fast enough to meet the needs of this country. We have a demand problem among vast numbers of the American people who aren't consuming as fast as they used to because they have lost their jobs, they have lost their equity because of the housing crisis, and because, if they have gone back to work, they aren't earning as much as they used to earn. The middle class is shrinking, as you well know, and the ranks of the poor are growing. So we have a demand problem in this society. The energy question, and the reason I am opposing your amendment is because our budget, our allocation is about $34 billion. If you look just at this year, we will have over $200 billion in imported energy that sucks the wealth out of this country and sends it somewhere else. The portion of our bill that deals with energy is not $34 billion, but maybe a third of that. So you have got maybe 10, 12 billion, $15 billion at the most in our bill that deals directly with energy versus over $200 billion in terms of energy imports. So we are way out of balance as a society. The portion of the investment that we make here to invent a new energy future is moving us in the right direction but too slowly. So do I feel we are going to meet the needs that we need to for the future?…”