Having visited Darfur and Sudan last year... I am aware, firsthand, of the tragedy in Darfur...

I think Ms. Almquist made a good statement for all of us to adhere to.

Well, given the experience we had in Iraq with the hydrocarbon law and the sharing of wealth, where you had oil in one place and recipients in another, 6 months is a short timeframe to negotiate what will happen.

What is being done now, of a preventative nature, either on hydrocarbon or the oil situation, or security?

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind my colleagues about where we are today and where we were under the dreadful 8-year Bush administration. At the end of that administration, we were losing 800,000 jobs every month, and today we are on…

Mr. Speaker, the stock market, this very minute, is dropping like a rock over the financial collapse of Greece and the pending failure of other Euro nations. They are bankrupt from unsustainable government spending under the same programs…

Mr. President, I rise to express my disappointment at the posture of the massive legislative overhaul of our financial markets that appears set to pass this body. I am disappointed at what this bill, as written, means for businesses on…

One of the reasons you have a budget is so you can make legitimate estimates on how much you're going to spend. If you don't make a budget, you're not tied to a legitimate estimate and what your revenues are going to be coming in to pay…

I thank my friend for yielding. You know, some of the Members of this august body that are living just a normal life, they ought to be looking at this, and folks back home ought to be looking at this and thinking how can you spend all that…

And we got to see last night all those Bush blue lines. And we did get to see the first little Obama line right there. But that's not an Obama line yet, that's just a Democratic Congress line.

So if I understand you, those other budgets you're talking about, those four others, there was--in those cases there was an attempt to pass a budget, but they never could reconcile. Maybe they couldn't reconcile the differences with the…

That's a Nancy Pelosi line. And then look what's happened since. And so it's true, figures don't lie. You just don't show them all, it makes a little bit of a difference. So I am glad you got that chart out. I just brought it up because I…

I thank the gentleman for yielding. These are serious times, and we have serious issues to deal with. Recently, I was privileged to be in a meeting with some conservative economists, and I say that because I want to make sure that we are…

It seems to me you ought to at least try. I mean, it's almost like, you know, my wife, one time my son wanted to know--he had to drop out of baseball to play football, and he wanted to go back and play baseball. And he was all hanging…

Above what they're spending now on their health insurance. Now, I don't care how big you are. That's a big chunk of money, and it would shock anybody from the biggest corporation in the world down to the little mom-and-pop to have that…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Amendment No. 3746, as Modified

Mr. President, I appreciate the distinguished majority whip. I voted with him last week on the interchange fees on debit cards. I thought it was a good amendment. But I have to take issue. Don't generically accuse those of us in this body…

The Senator and I might differ on points, but I defer to the Senator. I wish I had the control to control votes, but I don't. There were two on his side and two on ours. There are people with higher pay grades who were responsible for…