Christopher Shays

We want to get our financial house in order and balance the budget. I get into this whole issue of Medicare, which is really trying to save our trust funds. There is not a Member of Congress who does not represent a number of seniors, and…

the bottom line to this is that people have said, ``Well, we got into this over 30 years. It should take us 30 years.'' No, we got into debt in 1 year. We are not looking to pay back the debt. We were simply saying, ``Let us not make the…

We are not cutting the earned income tax credit; it is growing. The Student Loan Program is growing. The student lunches are growing. Student loans are growing by 50 percent. Every student is going to get the same amount of loans under our…

sometimes a liberal is the person who sees someone drowning out 50 feet from the pier and runs to the end of the pier and grabs 100 feet of rope and throws this excess rope. The rope is dangling around the person, and finally it is taut…

I have found the most patriotic people in our black churches, and it always amazed me how the African-American community could be so patriotic, given the heritage that brought them to this magnificent country. And Barbara Jordan gave me…

we have three primary objectives. One is to get our financial house in order and balance our Federal budget; the second is to save our trust funds from insolvency, and ultimate bankruptcy, particularly Medicare; and our third objective is…

I would make this point, it is not like the telephone company where you found you were with AT&T, the next moment you found yourself part of MCI or another telephone service. You will stay in Medicare, the traditional fee-for-service, the…

Ultimately, this Government is going to be shut down until the President doe his job and provides this Congress with his balanced budget. That is a fact. It is not something that either you or I like, but we know what the cause is. This is…

So it has been since November 20 and the President made it very clear that we would balance the budget using the Congressional Budget Office numbers. And what has happened since then? Has he submitted a budget? Has it been scored by the…

Just to clarify, that is because that beneficiary basically has $600 that they bring to a plan on a monthly basis, whereas in a county like your own, a rural county or counties like your own, it may only be $200 or $300?

Whether it is a farmer that has to invest in new facilities or new equipment for their farming or a businessman in some of the urban areas, or businesswoman in urban areas I represent, they look at the cost of money, and then they say ``If…

Well, I know that you are a newer Member of Congress, and I know that you decided to run because you looked at how you saw Congress operate and said how can grown men and women fail to get our financial house in order? And that is what we…

my understanding is the average starts somewhere between $4,000 and $5,000 on an annual basis, and the bottom 50 percent are actually below $4,000, yet just the top 10 percent are $6,000 and climbing.

My colleague has pointed out a number of myths. We have presented our program. We are proud of our program. We are looking to the President to be an author and not just a critic. We stand ready to work with the President and with our…

I think we have made a very good-faith effort to try to deal with this inequity. That is one area that we looked at. Another area I would love to focus in on before our time runs out is that health care fraud, which is pretty rampant, has…

My colleague, what we have been talking about is one of the many plans that are part of our Balanced Budget Act which the President vetoed. We have some major differences with the President on Medicaid and on Medicare. He has some…

I was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1974, and it never ceased to amaze me, when I saw my colleagues in Congress having to form a budget, that they did not have to balance the budget. It never ceased to amaze me that…

If my colleague would yield, I have a number of constituents who manage their own care and manage their own health. They do not smoke, they may not drink, they try to lead healthy lives. They are a tremendous savings to our country because…

And the total increase, if I might add, of 50 percent during that time. From $24 billion to $36 billion. Only in this city would someone call that a cut.

I have had Mr. Greenspan come before my Committee on the Budget, and Mr. Greenspan was asked one time, do you think Congress will cut too much? And his answer was this: ``Mr. Congressman, I don't go to sleep at night fearful that when I…

It is astounding when we find out what some of the fraud is. Some of it is perceived to be in a mistake where they were sent a $16 bill, it turned out to be $160 or $16,000, or a man being charged for giving birth to a child, just things…

Are you saying this is based on determining health care costs county by county by county?

I was elected to the statehouse in 1974 and began service in 1975 and I could never understand how Congress would be able to spend more than it raised in revenues and deficit-spend. I knew that on the State level we had to balance our…

I would just say that he is part of an incredible family, the Bailey family. John Bailey, his father-in-law, the chairman of the Democratic Party in Connecticut, in fact brought that Democratic Party from minority status to extraordinary…

Jim Kennelly was the best speaker that I have ever seen in my life in the 20 years I have been a member of the State house and Congress. He was someone who believed so passionately in the institution and his responsibilities of guiding the…