John Mica: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, let's deal with just a few facts. First of…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, let's deal with just a few facts. First of all, the fact is that this would be the ninth extension. The fact is that the Democrats, who are on the other side of the aisle, when they controlled the entire House of Representatives and the United States Senate--the other body--in a huge majority and the White House, they did six extensions. That's the first fact. The second fact is that the folks from the other side of the aisle, when they controlled it, they weren't even able to get a bill out from subcommittee to full committee. We passed it in committee, and we've gotten it this far to the floor with huge majorities. They did not pass it. Let's just deal with the facts. The facts are, on June 17, 2009, after my cooperating with the previous chair on the other side of the aisle to go forward with a long-term bill, it was President Obama who sent then-Secretary Ray LaHood to tell us that they were going to kill a 6-year bill that we had agreed on to move forward, which they couldn't even get out of committee, to an 18-month extension. These are the facts. The fact is that they had 6,300 earmarks in the last bill, and they were open to earmarks in the bill that they were about to propose. This bill is being brought forward without tax increases.…”