Lloyd Bentsen: “this bill has two problems. The first problem is that the majority has written a brand-new stimulus bill costing at…”

“this bill has two problems. The first problem is that the majority has written a brand-new stimulus bill costing at least $150 billion over 10 years and brought it to the floor on the day that we are recessing for the President's Day holiday or work week. The Senate is, if they have not left already will be leaving soon, and so what happens is even if the House is to adopt this, the Senate is not going to take it up for at least another week and a half or longer. People who have been unemployed since last spring of 2001 are going to get nothing. Now, we can argue over what should be in a stimulus package and what should not be in there; but the fact is we could very easily extend unemployment compensation for 13 weeks today, and it would be done for the time being until we get back. But the other side does not want to do that because they want to continue the debate and the bickering that goes on, and I think that is a mistake. The second problem is that no one is recognizing the fact that in the last year we have lost $4 trillion in surplus value in this country and we are now eating into the Social Security surplus. And here is another $150 billion. There are some good ideas in here. I like some of the ideas. But at some point somebody is going to have to pay for it. The taxpayers are going to have to pay for it. My children will have to pay for it, your children. We are just adding on to the debt again.”