House Proceeding 02-13-09 on Feb 13th, 2009 :: 0:19:55 to 0:24:30
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0:19:51 to 0:20:12( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: protect patients from the misuse of comparative effective research and ensure that seniors continue to have access to medically necessary treatments. mr. speaker, i urge every member of this house to join me in this effort. i yield back the remainder of

0:19:55 to 0:24:30( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Peter A. DeFazio
Bill: H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

0:20:13 to 0:20:35( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: my time. the speaker pro tempore: mr. defazio of oregon. the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. defazio: i thank the chair. there's been a lot of talk in washington, d.c. over the last few years about the bridge to nowhere, an anomaly from a lot

0:20:36 to 0:20:56( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: of good in that bill. what we have in this bill today is a lot of tax cuts to nowhere. i never met a tax cut that could build a bridge or rebuild the 160,000 bridges in our national highway system that need rebuilding. they're crumbling and falling in or functionally obsolete. i never met a tax cut that

0:20:57 to 0:21:17( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: could even nil a pothole. i never met a tax cut that could build a school. i went in a new post world war school to school, elementary school. it's still there today serving future generations of kids. that was mon money well spent.

0:21:18 to 0:21:40( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: money borrowed for tax cuts, ephemeral tax cuts, very small tax cuts for the average family, are not going to rebuild our economy, put us on the path to prosperity and put people back to work. three republican senators insisted on a lot more tax cuts. they hijacked the bill because

0:21:41 to 0:22:02( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: of the arcane, abc heat and discretionary rules of the senate. it didn't need to be that way. let's just look at a couple of things they cut. we had an amendment on the floor of the house to add million back to transit that would have provided for thousands of jobs. we have backlogs, 12,000 buses are obsolete.

0:22:03 to 0:22:24( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: there's backlogs of orders for buses, options that aren't funded that would have put american workers to work building the buses and american workers to work driving the buses, taking americans to work and school. billion was cut from there to make room for tax cuts. there was money cut from highways. to go to tax cuts.

0:22:25 to 0:22:46( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: all of the money, all of the money to build schools was cut from the bill. for tax cuts. the list goes on and on and on. to rebuild our infrastructure with this bill. we could have done so much more to help our kids get a good

0:22:47 to 0:23:07( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: education in safe, new schools and facilities, but they went now, there was one tax cut actually that would have helped a business in my district. that employees 1,300 people that tax cut was taken out of the bill. and the c.e.o. called me yesterday to say, we'll probably be closing our doors

0:23:08 to 0:23:29( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: because we're not getting that tax relief. and then there's money to help the states with the deficit and the school budgets. except it can't be spend until july. my schools are in crisis now. they're talking about lopping a month off the school year and we're being told we can't spend

0:23:30 to 0:23:51( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: that money. now you need it for next year. we're in the last three months of a nine-month year that means our cuts are going to be twice as big as they normally would be on an annual basis. we need access to that money now. this bill ultimately is a lost opportunity.

0:23:52 to 0:24:12( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: i fear that when it comes time to do further investment, the borrowing well may have run dry. who is going to lend us this 00 billion to spend on these sorts of things like tax cuts? they mig build a bridgeecause they know it makes us more producve and puts people to work and provides returns.

0:24:13 to 0:24:30( Edit History Discussion )

Peter A. DeFazio: they might lend us money for other substantial thing, might lend us money for education. but will they lend us money to cut taxs? we'll probably buy it from china and japan and think maybe we can go back to the well again later when we want to