John Spratt: “We convene today to review the state of our economy, a dismal state, and its interaction with the budget.”

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.

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

This bill will authorize the Rural Utilities Service to make loans to rural electric co-ops so that the co-ops, in turn, can make loans to families and small businesses for energy conservation and efficiency measures that meet Federal…