Corning Leader’s interview with Massa
Yesterday’s Corning Leader has a great interview with Eric Massa discussing his orientation and his priorities as he takes office this week. Seems as though, like it or not, the freshman congressman will all be hitting the ground running (no big deal for Massa who could put the Energizer Bunny to shame):
What have you been doing since the end of the campaign and how is the transition going?
“I went to Washington. I sat down in a room for freshman orientation. They came around and collected all the books and threw them away.
Our freshman orientation was during the week the automobile crisis broke. The leadership in the House said ‘Parking spaces? Office assignments, who cares?’ and they literally threw us out into meetings all relevant to the automobile bridge loan bailout and saving the domestic auto industry. It really was not business as usual.
There was a terrible sense of urgency in Washington I have never seen before, and I am not a total stranger to Washington. It was fascinating to watch from my point of view. Business as usual is not what’s going on.
[snip]
What are your legislative priorities?
“That’s easy. The new administration has made it very clear Congress will work with them closely to stimulate this economy and to stave off a great depression, which is now what all the experts are talking about.
I remember sitting at this table taking about that a year ago and people looking at me like ‘Well you’re just a candidate exaggerating the situation.’
I didn’t think I was then and now the experts certainly don’t think we are. I’ve been wearing an FDR button for three years. FDR has been on the cover of Time magazine, he just looks a lot like Barack Obama.
The model that was put forth in 1932 is in fact the model that will be followed in 2009. It’s job creation, job stimulus and infrastructure rebuilding. That’s the number one legislative priority.
The Iraqi government decided for us what our policy is going to be in Iraq. They said ‘You’re out of here in 18 months.’ They’ve made that decision. Now it’s a matter for us to responsibly implement it.That’s not a point of debate any more. Now the debate is, how do we take that $15 billion to $25 billion a month that was being spent in Iraq and spend it in the United States, or not, to rebuild our economy and our infrastructure.
And so it goes. These are not ordinary times, this cannot be an ordinary congress.
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