U.S. State Attorneys General

Mr. Chairman, as I believe I began with this debate, I would say again, I have no doubt about the gentleman's intentions and his good faith in trying to ensure that we do everything we can to make sure that law enforcement, whether local…

The problem some of us have with the amendment, though, is it goes beyond what the gentleman just spent several minutes discussing, and that is the ability to go in there and detain and arrest someone who they know has committed wrongful…

Mr. Chairman, this bill goes the final step and says, ``If we catch you, you can never return.'' It takes into account not one bit what the circumstances may have been for that individual who was in the country. If that individual happened…

But the bill itself no longer has that tester section. It was taken out of the bill, before the bill was coming to the House.

I must, unfortunately, still say I oppose the bill for a number of reasons. I do not believe, unfortunately, that what we have before us is a bill that really does reform, in a meaningful way, legal immigration. And I believe that we have…

Indeed. I am given great hope by the gentleman from Florida's suggestion that sooner or later if the President keeps vetoing things, we will have two-thirds in this body. God speed the day.

The big deal is we do not have the time left. The clock is way past midnight on the budget and the debt of the United States. The point is we cannot afford that amount of time when we have 7 years to the halfway point before the…

I think the gentlewoman's comments are candid and, in that sense, extremely helpful. I do believe there is a significant sentiment... we do not have a year to waste.

I would say that the majority is not just denying the four of us, the majority of this House is now denying the American people the chance to express itself and that must change.

Mr. Becerra deserves particular praise because this may be the only discussion we have an opportunity to have about priorities under the way this bill is going to be brought to the floor, and I want to speak for just a few minutes about…

So the schools will have to do with a little bit more money, but with more kids and inflation on top of that.

So in other words, the Republican proposals do increase from this current fiscal year what will be allotted next year, but they do not cover the true costs because they do not take into account the growth in the number of kids in the…

We should give some detail because the gentleman who spoke earlier about this and said we are actually increasing the budgets over the next several years for those school, those child nutrition programs wants to leave the impression that…

All I would like to say is that we should take a little bit of time and think about what we mean by reform regarding welfare. You know, what is it and who really gets it? Then, once we do that, once we think about it, let us reform…

There are estimates it might be over $250 billion over 5 years. The capital gains program alone will cost about $55 billion the first 5 years. There are some estimates that after 10 years that goes up to about $210 billion.

That is correct. These are the same folks, too, who are saying we cannot afford to increase the minimum wage from $4.25 an hour.

Seventy-five percent; the 10 percent of richest Americans in this country will receive 75 percent of the tax cuts in the capital gains proposal in the Contract with America, and you can take a look. If you happen to earn somewhere between…

Drastically differently. Wages are fully taxed. Capital gains are not. The proposal that the Republicans have in their Contract with America says let us give them a further break in their capital gains, but the interesting thing about this…

If I might say, too, in that report, it indicates that because of some severe actions we have taken in the last year or two the deficit is going down a little bit now. But, clearly in next few years, it is going to start to rise again…

And the gentleman's proposal which does provide for capitol budgeting, could that allow for that type of process, a 30-year mortgage?

If I had in my hand today an amendment to try to preserve for us the right to ban the gifts from lobbyists, I would not be able to do that right now. So let me quote to you some words that I think are most eloquently stated, back in May…