Austin Scott

let me assure the gentleman it was not beating him up. He is a great gentleman, but it is some of the policies that have been emanating from the gentleman's leadership.

first, I want to respond to something my distinguished colleague from the other side said. Now you talk about smoke and mirrors. For him to say on our side that we are talking about raising taxes is so disingenuous. Nobody is talking about…

It is great to be with you, Mr. Ross, and with my colleagues from the Blue Dogs and our distinguished cochairman. I think this startling information that you have just made known to the American people speaks to the fundamental issue at…

Mr. Ross has so eloquently stated the great failure in our American government today. The whole situation of Hurricane Katrina marks one of the darkest spots in American history. But there is a pattern here of a lack of response. There is…

It is about accountability, and it is also about our budget. For example, if you remember, after 2001 Congress appropriated a total of $765 million for port security programs, including $173 million for FY 2006, to help our seaports adopt…

When you combine this with the startling revelation that half of this debt is being held by foreign countries, I go back to that word ``security.'' Is it in our best security interest to have our financial well-being held in the hands of…

let me just commend Mr. Watt as chairman of our Congressional Black Caucus for providing leadership in this important celebration and observance of the great and extraordinary contributions that African Americans have made and continue to…

I will tell you one thing. I have just come back from my district and I have talked and had town hall meetings, and I have had opportunities to meet people at our churches, and people are in tune. They are tuned in to what is happening in…

Absolutely. And the President of this country has not lifted a finger to move it. If they did, it would move. At a time when we are depending so strongly on these veterans, on our military. And let me just add, these are men and women who…

Absolutely, and just responding to your very eloquent description of the status quo, of the situation and the landscape that the American people are faced with today with a budget that is squarely not responsive nor responsible to the…

Thank you so much, Mr. Ross. It is always a pleasure to come and be a party to our efforts here on behalf of the Blue Dog Coalition as we work very hard to try to bring some reason and sanity to this whole issue of our budget, our…

And when you mention those tax cuts, the other terrible stab at the American people is that to make these tax cuts permanent means to borrow more money from these countries on top of what we are borrowing. And to offset those tax cuts in…

What a great challenge and what a great opportunity we have at this time in history in this country to move us forward to the next phase, to a higher calling, to a more significant meaning of the greatness of this country, to build on that…

I thank Mr. Watt and certainly Mr. Rangel for their leadership on this, and Mr. Ney of Ohio for his leadership on this. What an honor it is for me to stand here and to speak some words about the extraordinary contributions that the…

Every year, but we are on the ballot every other year where they have to give their verdict. And, finally, Mr. Ross, you made the point concerning the deficit, the debt, the money we are borrowing from foreign countries. But I think it is…

Thank you so much my distinguished colleague, Congressman Ross, from the great State of Arkansas. You continue to do an extraordinary job of leadership in this Congress and the people of Arkansas, I am sure, are very, very proud of you. It…

I definitely do agree. Just to bring your point home and the gentleman from Tennessee's point home about what we are doing and the money we are borrowing from foreign governments, just think about this as you tie that to homeland security…

I cannot begin to tell my Republican friends how disappointed I am, and I want to speak to why you are seeing so much passion on this floor tonight from Democrats, and especially from Blue Dog Democrats, of which I am a proud member. I am…

I feel very privileged and honored to be here with my fellow Blue Dogs. Our debate is going out across the country thanks to C-SPAN, and I think it is very important that we understand that the American people have awakened. All of the…

the gentleman raises such a great point on the interest, and I think the American people need to know that just on the money that we are paying these other countries, just on the interest, it amounts to more than what we are paying for our…

Absolutely, our plan, the Blue Dog plan number eight, is to justify spending for pet projects, that while we have many projects that may be worthy, it is very important that we have written justification available to the public so the…

who is telling the truth? The Democrats are telling the truth on this. This is smoke and mirrors, and the Republicans are offering a budget reconciliation package that is definitely harmful to the American people. We can do better, this…

the entire country witnessed what happened in my district, in the Fulton County Courthouse, on the morning of March 11, 2005. On that day, Brian Nichols, was to appear in a retrial for charges of rape and false imprisonment. As he was…

this is indeed an extraordinary time. I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for allowing me to participate in this great testimonial to an extraordinary woman, Mrs. Rosa Parks. Mrs. Rosa Parks was indeed an…

I yield such time as he may require to the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt). (Mr. SPRATT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)