John Spratt

If we have entitlements that we already can't pay for, shouldn't we not be adding new entitlements?

The moral of the story is, if the leaders of both parties don't want a commission to succeed, if the leaders of both parties aren't willing to put both parts of the budget, taxes and spending, on the table, the chances that it is going to…

The positive impact of the Recovery Act is already being made apparent, and more economic activity will be generated as stimulus dollars continue to spend out.

Under Democratic leadership, the 111th Congress moved swiftly to enact the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which has jump started economic activity.

Failed Republican economic policies had brought the financial system dangerously close to a complete meltdown and had driven the economy into its deepest recession since the 1930s.

When President Obama was sworn into office at the beginning of this year, the economy was in deep contraction and jobs were being lost at a rate of 741,000 per month.

I want to thank Congresswoman Gwen Moore for suggesting this hearing and for her role in bringing it about and putting it together.

I want to welcome everyone to our hearing this morning on The Social Safety Net: Impact of the Recession and of the Recovery Act.

I think it is a bit irresponsible to at least articulate to the American people, to the Congress, why you think we need a new policy direction.

All of these have contracts for ultimate waste disposal with the federal government?

Let me get something clear. There are a hundred and three operating nuclear reactors, commercial reactors in operation generating spent fuel waste.

We are the Budget Committee, not the Energy Committee, and it is not our job to draft energy bills.

We must respect the right of individuals to choose health insurance and providers.

There must be universality of access to health care.

Nobody should be financially destroyed due to a catastrophic illness.

Mr. Garrett. I thank the chairman and I thank the witness, Dr. Romer, for being here today.

Insurance companies should not be allowed to cherry pick those who they cover based upon pre-existing conditions.

Every child in America deserves health care coverage. We cannot continue to place selfish ideology above the health of our children.

Thank you very much indeed.

Can we conclude from what you have just said and from what you are seeing that the favorable factors in our economy today may be glimmers of hope, may be harbingers of an economy that is recovering?

Simply giving away pollute-for-free allowances to certain industries does not work.

An approach which relies on giveaways instead of relying upon auctions would, represent the largest corporate welfare program that has ever been enacted in the history of the United States.

I think it is a widely held view that all of those actions have had positive effects on the economy.

Over the last year and a half some truly extraordinary steps have been taken, including the so-called TARP program, the Recovery Act program, and the Fed's own actions to make an extraordinary amount of collateralized loans to its member…