Rod Blum

Is there accountability? I just find it incredible. Is there accountability there? Why aren't heads rolling? Why aren't people terminated?

I am a career business guy, not a career politician. I look at the VA, you know, our veterans, our national treasures.

It reminds me of someone buying a drug that there is only one available in the country and then raising the price 100-fold.

To me, it is almost like legalized extortion, in that you can get a letter--and we have, our company has--get a letter that says, you know: You are violating this innocuous patent we have never heard of because you--I will use an extreme…

Get out of my back pocket with excessive taxes so I am not spending time and money on that.

Get off my back with excessive regulations so I am not spending time and money on that.

We do not need tariffs to compete. We need just the opposite. We need to engage in more free trade agreements.

The complex favors the large.

I urge adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time

I would like to make the gentleman from Virginia aware that I have no further speakers and I am prepared to close. I enjoy my colleague from Virginia's rather dry sense of wit and humor. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

It is imperative--imperative--that we identify and help mitigate the difficulties identified by small, rural carriers in deploying broadband so we can begin to close the urban and rural digital divide.

I must say, first of all, I am a huge, huge supporter of the Tenth Amendment.

One of the reasons we are the greatest nation on the face of this earth is because of the rule of law.

I have often heard that warfare of the future will not be about bullets and bombs; it will be about bits and bytes. So this is a war. Are we winning the war or are we losing the war?

I agree with you, I think a sane immigration policy is important, or we will not achieve the economic growth rates we want to achieve.

I would suggest that raising wages is one of the most important things that we can do to really fuel consumer demand.

The bill was just released last week, everyone is still going through the details, but our current tax system is Byzantine and antigrowth.

The closest thing we have to eternal life on this planet is a government program or a government regulation.

In closing, I urge adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I got looking at the $15.6 billion and I thought, Mr. Secretary, if you and I formed a company, I am guessing we could do for $8 billion, save the government $7 billion, and you and I would put a few dollars in our pocket I am guessing.

I just want to conclude by saying small businesses have zero--zero--resources available, none.

The government shows up with a subpoena in hand and a bayonet, and it is by force.

Can you imagine if we incentivized your agencies with bonuses in your paychecks, if you reduced the regulatory burden on our businesses?

There is not a small business person in my district, in Northeast Iowa, that believes that statement, not one.