On the recordMarch 15, 2016
I thank my friend from Ohio for yielding the time to me. Mr. Speaker, I had not planned on coming down here. I know we are on a clock and we are trying to get some things done, but I heard the passionate words of my friend from Colorado--and he is my friend from Colorado. I think about what is, sadly, the sometimes short list of folks who are on the other side of the aisle with whom you can grapple with the really difficult issues of the day in this institution. Mr. Polis is one of those folks to whom you can always go and have a very candid and serious conversation about things, even those things on which you disagree, which I think is why it has so distressed me to hear some of the words that he had to share today. Now, I confess that this is sometimes part of the show down here on Rules Committee day, and sometimes folks have the talking points, and they are obligated to go through those talking points. Yet, as a member of the Budget Committee and as a relatively young Member in this institution, I would say to my friend from Colorado that the reason approval ratings in this institution are so low is that you and I stand up here and we tell our constituents that they are supposed to be so low. Instead of telling our constituents that we have been working on a budget the way we are supposed to work on a budget--line by line, word by word because it is a serious challenge that deserves a serious solution--we tell folks we have just thrown up our hands and quit. Not true.…
