Albert Russell Wynn: “Last year, the President's advisers decided that in 2004 the President was going to talk about big ideas. Good, that is…”

“Last year, the President's advisers decided that in 2004 the President was going to talk about big ideas. Good, that is what Presidents are supposed to do, but then the President decided what we ought to do is go to the moon and Mars and cost the taxpayers $1 trillion. We have explored the moon in 1969 and 1970. It is a rock. We have seen pictures of Mars. It is also a rock. It seems to me the big idea is to help the working families in America. This economy has lost 3 million jobs under President George Bush. Two million workers have been unemployed for more than 6 months; 1.4 million workers have exhausted their unemployment benefits but still have not found work. A big idea would be to put people to work like Franklin Roosevelt did. Another big idea would be to provide health insurance for all 41 million Americans who do not have health insurance. Health insurance costs for those who have it are rising, and pretty soon more people will not have it. That would be a big idea. Health insurance. Funding medical research to fight cancer and AIDS and ending poverty and hunger would be big ideas that we ought to be pursuing in the 21st century. Instead, when the President's big idea is to go to Mars, it seems to me he has lost contact with the American people. Democrats have big ideas, making America a better place in which to live.”