Gary Palmer

I grew up dirt-poor, so I paid potential and specific attention to things, how it impacts lower-income families.

I do not blame the CBO for all of its failures. But I do think we have got to eliminate the gimmicks.

That, to me, is the gimmick of all gimmicks, Mr. Chairman.

But if it is an open-ended deal where it depends on how many people signup, I do not think that is a cut.

When we--in our bill that we passed last year--froze Medicaid expansion, everybody was running around saying that we were cutting Medicaid which, frankly, that is not a cut.

There has got to be better information, in my opinion, that comes out that takes into account these improvements in the economy.

There has been an enormous change in the regulatory burden and the growth of regulatory burden in particular.

We have seen estimates as high as $1.9 trillion in terms of what overregulation is costing the economy.

I think that, you know--just for the record--that is what we have been trying to do for the last year.

I think this is right in line with what we are trying to do with the budget reform and appropriations task force to fix this.

I think we owe it to the taxpayers to be an A-plus.

However, it is safe to say fiscal responsibility has significantly decreased in the time since its establishment.

That is not necessarily a cut, you know, if it is the same $100 that you spent the week before.

The use of baseline budgeting is flawed, and often construes government spending increases as a given prior to the appropriations process.

Unfortunately, these Keynesian economic policies, in many people's opinion--and I know some others--but in my opinion, have failed in reality, in real life.

We do not live our lives that way. Why would we, as a representative of the American people, make decisions for them on that behalf the same way?

I appreciate very much the comments from the gentleman from Missouri. I know the family does. I knew Corporal Rivers. He attended the same high school as my children. I know his mom and dad very well. He is another example--as we have…

I urge the adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman from New York for bringing up this bill. The State of Alabama takes immense pride in the Tuskegee Airmen for their skill and courage. Mr. Speaker, I would like to make the gentleman from Missouri aware that I have no…

The reality is that our nation has approximately 215 disasters that have cost the taxpayers over a billion dollars, and that is just since 1980.

If you are just going to study the projects or only going to build small parts of it, you are really not helping out there.

Is this an issue, something that should be better addressed at the State level?

The Federal Government has tremendous resources.

I give you and the President credit that you have included 1.7 trillion in mandatory cuts.

Neither party should take credit for balancing the budget in the 1990s.