Political Quotes

“If the gentleman would yield, I think it's important for us to pull specific examples. I represent a district just to the east of Congressman Boccieri. It is very similar in nature to Mr. Murphy's district, manufacturing, traditional manufacturing. We've actually seen in the last couple of months a couple of point decrease in the unemployment rate. It is still way too high, but this stimulus plan is coming down the pike. It has helped in so many different ways, on so many different road projects, in different infrastructure projects. We got $100 million in title 1 money for our schools which prevented tens, if not hundreds, of teachers from being laid off. We've got grants for police and fire, cops. There are 20-some cops on the beat because of the COPS grant in the city of Akron. Now if we didn't have the stimulus package, if we weren't investing Community Development Block Grant money, if we weren't putting money into roads and bridges and infrastructure, if we weren't making sure there was State support for our schools and education funds, we would have lost thousands of teachers, police, fire, and construction workers who would have never went back to work. Now we're not saying that we've got all the answers, and we've got a corner on the marketplace of success. But we've clearly--because years and years and years of economic philosophy prior to 1980 said, When the economy goes into a big downturn, someone has got to step up and fill the hole to prime the pump.”