Steve Womack

I am sure it was more over political reasons and the political consequences of trying to support something like that rather than one on merit.

I think, required to address because we have a broken immigration policy.

I agree with my colleagues that talk about the need to do a budget because I do think, as Speaker Pelosi indicated, that it is a statement of your values.

It is indisputable that as a percentage of our economy, discretionary spending... is going down, and that as a percentage of the economy, mandatory spending is continuing to skyrocket.

I believe that $22.5 trillion of debt is way too much, and we are going to spend $400-plus billion this year on servicing that debt.

I think the conversation would be better spent talking about issues of how do we better prevent a recession from happening through our policy discussions and get off of this desire or this insatiable appetite to talk about relitigating the…

But here we are today talking about how can we add to more mandatory spending in this country when any person with half a brain and decent in eighth grade math can figure out that when 70 percent of your federal spending is on the…

I said in my opening remarks that--and this is kind of a prayer that I have for our country--that we would spend as much time trying to use lessons learned in history to better protect ourselves against a recession, a potential recession…

Our focus should be on preventing a future crisis instead of just trying to react to one.

We should be working to bring more of those expenditures back under our oversight, which is, in my opinion, where they belong.

Whether some would like to admit it or not, there has been a resurgence of economic confidence within our country.

As Members of Congress, how can we support the VA, and are there legislative changes we need to make to help stem leadership and accountability failures?

We owe it to them to ensure that promise is kept, and that the care they receive is of a high quality.

The members of America's Armed Forces are promised care for life due to the sacrifice they make to serve our Nation.

It is obvious we have a disaster, the Federal Government has a response, and we all want to see money flow to the people that need it the most.

I do not know where that sweet spot is going to be, but I would like to just kind of throw a question out for the panel.

We need to throw more money at the problem.

I wish my friends on the other side would just quit demonizing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Infrastructure investment will transform and modernize our systems to support American families, create jobs, make U.S. industry more competitive.

What we need is a federal government that acts as a strategic partner, one that bolsters states' efforts, not hinder them.

When I was mayor of Rogers, Arkansas, I wanted to work with partners who understood the needs of my city.

This is unacceptable.

We need to treat them like family--that means guaranteeing something like this never happens again in a VA facility.

I believe in second chances, but not in life-or-death circumstances.

I respectfully request your Committee investigate the actions and decisions made by the VA throughout the entirety of this episode.