John Campbell: “first of all, I am happy to stand up here and identify myself with, as the majority party says, ``the fringe.'' You…”

“first of all, I am happy to stand up here and identify myself with, as the majority party says, ``the fringe.'' You know, you may have noticed recently that the approval ratings for this Congress are not very good. In fact, I think the latest I saw was that only 17 percent of Americans believe that this Congress is doing a good or a fair job. So I guess that being on the fringe of this Congress is meaning that we agree and associate ourselves with 83 percent of the American people. I would tell my friends on the majority that I am very happy to be on the fringe in Washington but on the mainstream outside of Washington. And the mainstream outside of Washington wants to keep their own money to spend it on what they want. And they believe, Madam Chairman, even if the other side doesn't, Americans believe, and they are right, that government wastes some of their tax money. And what this proposed amendment does is it would increase spending on this bill by 4.6 percent instead of 4.8 percent. It is a reduction over what is proposed by a quarter of a percent. A quarter of a percent. It still provides an increase of $6.6 billion over last year. So under this amendment if there is a government program that is scheduled to get a million dollars, it would instead have to struggle through on $997,500.”