Political Quotes

“The health care spending will protect precarious State budgets and protect people's health care as they ride out the storm. Isn't that the decent thing to do as this storm hits American families? Another argument: ``Some of it isn't soon enough.'' Well health information technology, for instance, will take a while to ramp up, but it is necessary infrastructure to avert the $35 trillion health care calamity now bearing down on us. It has to be done sooner or later. The recession will almost certainly be here 2 years from now, and if it does take a little while to do, isn't that all the more reason to start now? And then there are the--what I call the ``oh, please'' arguments. The party that ran up nearly $8 trillion in debt under George Bush--now that Barack Obama has been elected, and now in the one time of crisis when every respectable economist is saying this is the time for deficit spending--now suddenly gets religion about deficit spending? If this weren't so serious, it would practically be funny. Finally this: If our opponents cared about jobs and putting people to work quickly with effective, valuable infrastructure, why such widespread opposition to the $20 billion for school repair and construction? This money could have put contractors to work on school repairs, green renovation, weatherization, and conservation measures. It would have made schools cleaner and greener. It would have lowered local fuel budgets, and it would have reduced dependence on foreign oil.”