Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a bipartisan, commonsense amendment that Members of this body endorsed yesterday by unanimous consent. I wish to thank Chairman Baucus for his work and the work of his staff in managing this important job creation package on which we took a step yesterday. I wish to thank Senator Crapo for cosponsoring this bipartisan amendment and Senator Coburn for his ideas and support. My amendment is simple. It amends the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009--what I think most folks refer to commonly as the stimulus--to correct gaps in oversight and transparency. It provides much needed additional accountability for these public investments, again, that have come about through the stimulus package. I voted for the stimulus package. It was one of the first and toughest votes I cast as a Member of this body. I have worked hard to make sure my State, the Commonwealth of Virginia, has had opportunities to compete for its fair share of this funding. The Recovery Act was not perfect, and reasonable people can debate whether it was necessary or whether it was ambitious enough. But I do think it is fair to say that the majority of the economists of all political stripes across most of the ideological spectrum now agree a year later that while imperfect, the stimulus package prevented our battered economy from sliding over a cliff last spring into what I think could have been a full-scale economic depression.…”