Gerald Kleczka: “if I were a Republican, I would not want to get up and talk on this rule either. It seems only the Committee on Rules…”

“if I were a Republican, I would not want to get up and talk on this rule either. It seems only the Committee on Rules representatives, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reynolds) has the guts to do that. But do we know what is void in this debate today? And I cannot recall in a previous hour and I cannot recall the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reynolds) saying it in this rule debate, that the House has already passed a stimulus bill. We passed one 2 weeks ago. But it seems no one wants to talk about that because that is the bill that gave $1.4 billion to IBM, $1 billion to Ford, $850 million to GM. That is what was in that give-away. So why do not we have a compromise here today? Because the Senate looked at that and said not over their lives. That was dead on arrival. All right. So there has been talks going on over the last couple weeks. And I know why I am a Democrat and now I know what the Republicans are all about. Do you know why we do not have a compromise with us today? Even though the other body was going to swallow some of the tax cuts, the main reason is the Republicans did not want to do anything of any meaningful value to the unemployed in this country, and to those losing health care. My colleagues smile. The bill says $9 billion for health care for unemployment. That goes to the States. There is no guarantee they are going to extend unemployment 13 weeks.…”