Today I cast a vote to help the small business owners with shops on 19th Street in Allentown and Northampton Street in Easton.
I voted for a bill that I believe will help the people in the 15th District who need to buy a car on Lehigh Street or who are trying to buy a home on Broad Street in Bethlehem.
I voted for a bill that offers greater protections to people in our community who keep their money in banks on Tilghman Street.
I rejected the first version of this legislation because I decided that I wasn't going to allow the dealmakers on Wall Street and the powerbrokers in Washington to throw a bill for $700 billion in front of the taxpayers of the 15th District and tell me to approve it without asking questions or without negotiating for the people I represent.
Because I, and like-minded Representatives from both parties, refused to abdicate our responsibilities, the bill I voted for today is a better bill than the one that was originally presented to the House on Monday.
It offers tax relief to PA home owners and small business people. It offers tax credits that will help spur the development of alternative energy sources that will increase American energy self sufficiency.
The process led to a necessary change to the method that financial institutions use to do their accounting.
And, perhaps most importantly, it offers a significant increase in protection and security to the funds that all of us keep in our banks.
None of these important changes would have been made if I and others in the House had meekly caved in on Monday to enormous pressure from Washington insiders.
This bill is by no means perfect. I tried to alter it by offering amendments to strike unnecessary earmarks and to reduce the overall price tag. My efforts were not successful, but they were necessary and I am proud to have made them.
However, I could not allow the Perfect to be the enemy of the Necessary.
No one believes that this bill will immediately unfreeze the credit crisis or solve the turmoil in our markets and at our financial institutions, but I believe it will help unclog the jammed gears of America's economic machinery.
I believe it will provide calm.
I believe it will protect our savings.
I believe it will bring security to our senior's retirement accounts.
I believe it will allow parents to borrow the money they need to send their kids to school.
I believe it will help keep many people who live in our community employed at their job.
It is for these reasons that I voted for the legislation.