Tom Coburn: “I hear the word ``legacy.'' The legacy that is going to be left from this bill is demonstrated to us by history. Here is…”

“I hear the word ``legacy.'' The legacy that is going to be left from this bill is demonstrated to us by history. Here is what we did the last time we found ourselves in this shape. The Federal Government as a percentage of GDP went from 2 rac{1}{2} percent to 20 percent in all the New Deal programs. There is a wonderful book, and people ought to read it. It is called ``The Forgotten Man,'' Roosevelt's ``Forgotten Man'' series. This is an analysis of what we did, how we did it, what worked, and what didn't. Quite frankly, what you can see from this chart is that Government never got small again. Never. And what is going to happen is, if you look outside of this chart to what we are doing now, you are going to see Government grow again. So the total State and Federal take from GDP will be above 38 percent from now on. Now, what does that mean to you? What is the legacy of that? The legacy of that is lost opportunity--not for us; we will be pushing up daisies. Our children and our grandchildren, though, will suffer from a massive decline in their standard of living. That is not to say we shouldn't do a stimulus bill. The stimulus bill we should do should be very targeted--this one is not--it should be timely--this one is not--and it should be temporary--this one absolutely is not because we are going to see this same thing happen.”