On the recordJune 22, 2010
I thank the gentleman from Texas. Let me start, if I could, for just a second about jobs, because we are talking both inside these Halls and outside about jobs. The President and the Vice President are going on, it's called his recovery summer tour in which he's going to talk about the creation of jobs. In the talking points sent out from the White House, they are talking about the 30,000 miles of new transportation, 80,000 new homes that will be weatherized, 800 programs in parks that are being increased, 2,000 drinking water projects, all in the name of creating jobs. The President's also asking Congress for $20 billion in additional stimulus money to protect government jobs, in addition to the $135 billion we did in the original stimulus bill to do that. And for only $2 billion--now think of that, less than a tenth of what the President wants in a new stimulus bill to create and protect jobs; a rounding error in either the TARP or the TARP 2 or Son of TARP or Stimulus I or Stimulus II--this administration could protect 25,000 to 30,000 jobs in the private sector. These are scientists and engineers, and these are the jobs that this administration's policy with NASA are going to let go and give their pink slips.
