“The weak economy, widening income inequality, gridlock in Congress and a presidential election: Those were perhaps the dominant economic and political themes of 2012.” PoliticalEconomyEconomicWeakElectionCongressIncomeInequalityPresidentialThemeDominantPresidential ElectionIncome InequalityEconomic InequalityGridlock Author:Steven Rattner
“We need to make sure and that we can continue to move forward in creating jobs and getting the economy turned around. The best way to do that is to make sure that we can get Congress to adopt the American Jobs Act.” WayNeedsJobsMovingEconomyCreatingCongressBest WayMoving ForwardCreating JobsAmerican Jobs Author:Mitt Romney
“Congress must take responsibility for a new positive direction - an innovative agenda that will lead to a more secure America. Secure communities, secure economies, and a secure quality of life.” AmericaCommunityQualityResponsibilityEconomyCongressSecureAgendasTaking ResponsibilityInnovativeQuality Of Life Author:Rick Larsen
“The rhetoric on the Hill is getting very heated and it's getting quite dangerous. The gun is at the head of the American economy and Congress is holding it and its got a hair trigger. We've got to pay our bills.” PayEconomyDangerousHairGunBillsCongressHillsRhetoricTriggersAmerican Economy Author:Peter Welch
“I don't think there is anything this Congress could do more definitively to put people back to work, to stimulate our economy to increase our efficiency, our competitiveness, both nationally and internationally” PeopleThinkingEconomyIncreaseCongressEfficiencyCompetitivenessBack To Work Author:Peter DeFazio
“It may seem strange, but Congress has never developed a set of goals for guiding Federal Reserve policy. In founding the System, Congress spoke about the country's need for "an elastic currency." Since then, Congress has passed the Full Employment Act, declaring its general intention to promote "maximum employment, production, and purchasing power." But it has never directly counseled the Federal Reserve.” NeedsMayCountryWisdomSeemsPoliticsGoalEconomyPolicyStrangeIntentionCongressProductionsEmploymentLiberalismSpokesCurrencyReservesFoundingMaximumFederal ReserveDeclaringPurchasingPurchasing Power Author:Wright Patman
“There have been times when the Federal Reserve has restricted the money supply and raised interest rates to gain an end, which had much better been left to another Government agency or the Congress to attain. The country could have had lower interest rates without sacrificing anything else.” Has BeensEndsCountryGovernmentPoliticsLeftInterestEconomySacrificeGainsRaisedRateCongressAgencyLiberalismReservesFederal ReserveInterest RateGovernment Agencies Author:Wright Patman
“In a democracy the responsibility for the Government's economic policies, which so affect the economy, normally rests with the elected representative of the people: in our case, with the President and the Congress. If these two follow economic policies inimical to the general welfare, they are accountable to the people for their actions on election day. With Federal Reserve independence, however, a body of men exist who control one of the most powerful levers moving the economy and who are responsible to no one.” PeopleIfsMenTwoBodyGovernmentActionMovingPoliticsPresidentPowerfulResponsibilityCasesEconomyDemocracyEconomicPolicyResponsibleElectionIndependenceCongressWelfareLiberalismMost PowerfulRepresentativesReservesFederal ReserveElection DayEconomic PolicyLeversGeneral Welfare Author:Wright Patman
“If the Federal Reserve pursues a policy which Congress or the President believes not to be in the public interest, there is nothing Congress can do to reverse the policy. Nor is there anything the people can do. Such bastions of unaccountable power are undemocratic. The Federal Reserve System must be reformed, so that it is answerable to the elected representatives of the people.” PeopleIfsBelievePoliticsPresidentInterestCan DoEconomyPolicyCongressPursueLiberalismRepresentativesReservesReverseFederal ReservePublic Interest Author:Wright Patman
“Today it is difficult to find leaders who are independent of the forces that have brought us our problems: The Congress, the bureaucracy, the lobbyists, big business, and big labor.” ProblemWisdomBigsTodayPoliticsForceDifficultLeaderEconomyLaborIndependentCongressLiberalismBureaucracyBig BusinessLobbyists Author:Ronald Reagan
“Our mission, as set forth by the Congress is a critical one: to preserve price stability, to foster maximum sustainable growth in output and employment, and to promote a stable and efficient financial system that serves all Americans well and fairly.” WellsGrowthEconomyFinancialCongressMissionsCriticalEmploymentPreservesStabilityEfficientStableMaximumOutputFinancial SystemPrice Stability Author:Ben Bernanke
“Back in the mid-1980s, congressional hearings were held after we brought this litigation, and held up the first experiment. At that time, I went in front of Congress, along with the major agencies involved with this.” FirstsEconomyFrontsInvolvedMajorsCongressHearingExperimentsAgency Author:Jeremy Rifkin
“The country wants the president and the Congress focused on jobs and the economy. Any regulation that the president promulgates that isn't focused on, I think, is a risk for him, and the same is true for Congress.” ThinkingWantCountryJobsPresidentEconomyRiskCongressFocusedRegulation Author:Mara Liasson
“If the Congress is going to spend its whole time hauling up regulators and bureaucrats and looking like they're focusing on tiny, trivial things, instead of jobs and the economy, it could be a problem for them.” IfsWholeProblemJobsEconomyCongressTinyBureaucratsRegulatorsTrivial Things Author:Mara Liasson
“America isn't Congress. America isn't Washington. America is the striving immigrant who starts a business, or the mom who works two low-wage jobs to give her kid a better life. America is the union leader and the CEO who put aside their differences to make the economy stronger.” GivingTwoKidsJobsAmericaDifferencesLeaderEconomyMomLowsStrongerUnionsStriveCongressImmigrantsCeoBetter Life Author:Barack Obama
“We recognize the force of the argument that the effects of war under modern conditions may be felt in the economy for years and years, and that if the war power can be used in days of peace to treat all the wounds which war inflicts on our society, it may not only swallow up all other powers of Congress but largely obliterate the Ninth and the Tenth Amendments as well.” IfsYearsWellsMayWarUsedForceFeltPowerEconomyModernConditionsEffectsEconomicsArgumentTreatsConstitutionCongressWoundsOur SocietyAmendmentsEffects Of War Author:William O. Douglas
“In his annual economic report to Congress President Bush said that the transfer of American jobs overseas is actually part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time. So basically, losing your job to someone else can be a good thing. Of course we'll see how he feels about that in November.” FeelsSaidJobsCoursesPresidentEconomyEconomicLosingTransformationGood ThingsCongressReportsPresident BushNovemberTransfersAnnualsAmerican Jobs Author:Jay Leno
“I am willing to work with anybody who wants to have a serious conversation about our fiscal future. We're not going to do this under the threat of blowing up the entire economy. I will not negotiate over Congress' responsibility to pay the bills that have already been racked up. I don't know how I can be more clear about this.” KnowsWantI CanPayResponsibilityKnow HowEconomyClearWillingSeriousConversationBillsThreatCongressBlowing Up Author:Barack Obama
“One thing I will not compromise over is whether or not Congress should pay the tab for a bill they've already racked up. If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic.” IfsGivingShouldStatesAbilityUnitedPayUnited StatesEconomyOne ThingConsequenceBillsCongressRefuseCompromiseGlobal Economy Author:Barack Obama
“Congress must also enact pro-growth policies that encourage the economy to expand: like making tax relief permanent and repealing the death tax.” GrowthEconomyPolicyTaxesCongressPermanentReliefRepealing Author:Michael Steele
“The public conviction that a railroad linking the West and the East was an absolute necessity became so pronounced after the gold discoveries of '49 that Congress passed an act in 1853 providing for a survey of several lines from the Mississippi to the Pacific.” LinesEconomyDiscoveryGoldAbsolutesWestCongressConvictionEastProvidingPacificSurveysMississippiRailroads Book:The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States Source: The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States
“If Americans are frustrated with Congress, imagine their frustration with a group of international bank officials running our ecomomy-bankers who may not have as their motive either to see us out of debt to them or to strengthen our economy, society, international influence, or other elements of our way of life.” IfsWayMayRunningEconomyImagineGroupsInfluenceElementsInternationalCongressDebtMotiveOfficialsFrustrationFrustratedBankers Author:Oliver DeMille
“We in the Congress have a moral and constitutional obligation to protect the value of the dollar and to understand why it is so important to the economy that a central bank not be given the unbelievable power of inflating a currency at will and pretending that it knows how to fine-tune an economy through this counterfeit system of money.” KnowsImportantValuesGivenMoralKnow HowEconomyFineProtectDollarsCongressObligationTunesPretendingCurrencyUnbelievableCounterfeitCentral Banks Author:Ron Paul