Tim Ryan: “When most of us here are back home, I know that people say, ``Just stop the politics. Solve the problem.'' That entails…”

“When most of us here are back home, I know that people say, ``Just stop the politics. Solve the problem.'' That entails our making some tough decisions long term, and this is kind of the general theme of what we're talking about here. It is that we're trying to provide, yes, some short-term relief but also some long-term planning and long-term investments so that we're not here 10 years from now. If you're running a corporation or a business, you have a long-term business plan. This is our long-term business plan for the United States of America. Do you want billions of dollars going to the oil companies that are, supposedly, supposed to help them increase refining capacity and help make it easier to drill but where they're not doing it for whatever reason? Public tax dollars. So the average taxpayer is getting hit at the pump, and their tax dollars are going to the oil companies, and still the price is not going down. What we're trying to say is this money can be better spent. We are making a decision here to invest this into the long-term alternative energies which will prevent us, as a country, from being in the same position that we're in today 10 years from now.”