Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Rangel for yielding me this time. I want to thank you and Mr. Camp for bringing this legislation forward. I want to thank the minority whip, Mr. Cantor, for joining with us in making this a truly bipartisan effort. I also want to thank the 162 cosponsors, original cosponsors, of this legislation. I believe that all of us who are familiar with the various areas of our great country know that it all depends on where you live as to what kind of catastrophic event you can expect to visit your community. For many of us, it may be a dust storm; for others, like my area of the country, a hurricane; for others, it could very well be an earthquake. All of us are but the sum total of our experiences, and I believe that it is this vast amount and broad level of experiences that the people of these United States of America are going to call upon in order to respond to the people of Haiti. And for us to offer all Americans the opportunity to deduct on their 2009 taxes any contribution they make to this effort by February 28 will go a long way toward incentivizing the kind of behavior that we think is very, very important. I want to thank the sponsors of this legislation and thank all of those who will be voting for it today. It is one way that we can say to the people of this Nation that Americans not just sympathize with them but we empathize as well.”