Connie Mack

We should work together to put down the thugocrats like Hugo Chavez.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for this hearing, and I also want to associate myself with your opening remarks.

People in Latin America don't know where the United States stands, and that is why I think we ought to disengage from the OAS, directly engage with our friends and allies.

This administration has failed, has failed on that mission.

What the people, the people that we are talking about in Nicaragua, what they are looking for is someone to stand strong with them, and that means opposing what Ortega is doing to them.

We should withdraw from the OAS, we should stop funding the OAS.

I believe that the OAS is a hindrance to democracy in Latin America.

I submit to you that these drug cartels are terrorizing the school and the children and those schools.

We cannot continue to sit back and watch the growth of these cartels and their criminal insurgent activities in Mexico because it put not only the people of the United States at risk, our freedom, security and prosperity, but also the…

I mean, most people recognize that the cartels' activity has gotten worse, that they are using every tool available to displace government.

I thank the gentleman. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution of disapproval because Washington will continue to have a deficit spending problem until we say enough is enough and we put a stop to it. The gentleman across…

The deal that is on the table makes the hole deeper. And so don't -- you shouldn't expect people who believe that we should balance the budget to vote for a deal that makes the hole deeper.

The deal is on the -- that is on the table makes the hole deeper. And so don't -- you shouldn't expect people, who believe that we should balance the budget, to vote for a deal that makes the hole deeper.

Right now all of that oil, we are funding his ability to continue to sponsor terror.

Under Hugo Chavez, Venezuela has become a hub in our region for money laundering and transshipment of illicit goods.

I think a lot of us are wondering--and this is, obviously, a bipartisan issue; everybody is talking about the same thing.

What we are not happy about is that the three sanctions that were placed on PDVSA... are already not happening.

Venezuela has become the Wild West under thugocrat Hugo Chavez.

But you gave us the definition of why Cuba was put on the state sponsor of terrorism list, which is exactly what Chavez is doing in Venezuela.

Hugo Chavez kicked out our DEA.

How can you not designate Chavez as a state sponsor of terror when we know about the narcotrafficking, the support of Hezbollah?

The designation of being sanctioned is important, but the actual sanctions that took place don't have any teeth.

I mean, we are going to continue to buy this oil from Chavez when we can get it from our friends in Canada.

I think they know my views.

On the question that you asked earlier, how much are we sending, it is approximately $117 million a day.