On the recordSeptember 7, 2017
Madam President, in Washington, we have a disease--or a syndrome rather. I call it the dinosaur syndrome: big hearts, small brains. Unfortunately, it is a recurring problem year after year, bill after bill, day after day. In Washington, it is argued that you are more compassionate if you give away more of someone else's money. I would argue that true compassion is in giving your own money away. I would argue that truly rational policy is giving away money that you have. It is one thing to give away other people's money. It is another thing to give away money you do not even possess. As a country, we have a $20 trillion debt. We borrow $1 million every minute. Yet we are putting forward a bill to allocate $15 billion to those who are suffering from Harvey without paying for it and without finding the money from anywhere. We are simply adding it to our tab--adding it to our $20 trillion bill. How did we get to $20 trillion in debt? Big hearts, small brains. Nobody has the courage to ask: Why don't we pay for it? Why don't we be legislators and stand up like men and women and say: Let's set priorities. If it is a priority to help those in Texas--and I have great sympathy for those in Texas. My family is there. I have family members with 2 feet of water in their house so I have great sympathy for those who are in need, but there is no reason to be foolish. We shouldn't just borrow the money. Why don't we take the money from something less important?…
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