John McCain

We have really focused in this Congress on the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which is now law, the Tribal Law and Order Act, which will be signed at the White House this afternoon.

I suggest that you and the NCAI and NIGA have a look at what we have achieved in Arizona by virtue of agreements that were freely entered into, which I think has been of significant beneficial effect and provides, I think, some confidence…

Because as you just asserted, tribal sovereignty does not allow local authorities to oversight.

The more oversight and cooperation we can have between State and local government and tribal authorities, the better off we are, and the more success, I think, will accrue to Indian gaming.

It has been a great honor and privilege for me to have had the opportunity to serve with you on addressing a number of important issues to Indian Country and the Nation.

I would like to know what has been done in the last 7 years of these lists of initiatives and enhancements.

There are really a lot of great ideas here, I would say to the witness, and I would love to see some actual accomplishments.

I have not heard yet a single concrete example of what you have done to make these initiatives and enhancements a reality.

I must say that it is a wonderful and impressive list.

This is one of the more remarkable things that I have ever seen, and, frankly, it is kind of disrespectful to the jurisdiction of this Committee.

I think, is laughable.

The Stimulus was a failure. I don't have to speculate about it.

I don't need to speculate, all I have to do is look at the unemployment numbers that have been stagnant under this President.

President Obama's philosophy in steering this economy seems to be taken directly out of Alice In Wonderland.

President Obama and our Congressional Democrats are increasing taxes through legislation.

I will in all honesty nominate it as a Pulitzer in fiction, which would be humorous but for 15 million American workers who face the harsh reality of no jobs.

The stimulus was a failure. I don't have to speculate about that.

Clearly, the President's stimulus plan failed to work, as was predicted.

This could lead to that kind of a situation if the appropriators continue to add C-17s in the defense appropriations bill.

Mr. Chairman, I would argue that is another point that we need to make to our colleagues. It is not just a one-time expenditure of some billions of dollars, but it is also additional billion dollars at least per year of additional costs.

So we are talking about billions more. I do not know if we have any real estimate of those additional costs.

I also have a very strong impression that the C-130 is doing an incredible job since that was our primary means of transportation around the area.

Frankly, we need some legislative relief in order to get down to the numbers that we want to for----

There is going to be every part of the Federal budget squeezed, and the defense budget will not be immune from that.

I think we need to put a little more perspective on the costs here we are talking about.