James Longley

Mr. Chairman, the Weatherization Assistance Program is used to increase the energy efficiency of residences occupied by low-income individuals. I know that there are a number of changes that many in this body would like to see made to…

Just to end on that note, I think it is easy to forget we as a country have faced greater crises in the past. We are going to face greater crises in the future. What we have learned as a country, and particularly I know the senior…

This comes back to the point the gentleman from Connecticut made so well several minutes ago, that the easiest thing in the world any of us can do is say, well, we are going to create a program. Sure, we will give you more money, even…

We cannot even go, to go just one step beyond what you are saying, most people cannot even afford the tax burden now, even though we are not even paying for the entire Government. That is the difficulty we are trying to confront.

I think you are making an outstanding point. This is one of the reasons I went back and looked back over these 16 years of legislation. Literally, of these 16 acts, at different times the Democratic Party supported 12 of the 16 acts, and…

Not only that, it is clear that we have people in this city who have made a career out of taking more and more and more money from the public for their purposes, not for the public's purposes.

Just to pick up on one example, I think if someone asked me what has bothered me the most perhaps since I came to Washington, I have to say the lack of honesty, the lack of directness, being candid about the difficult issues that we are…

It is even worse than that, I would say to the gentleman. The revenue increases always happen. The spending cuts, reductions, never happen. There had never been a cut in Federal spending in the last 15 years. The Federal Government has…

The facts are that spending increased at tremendous rates during the 1980's. Yet, at the same time, we had Congress working together on a bipartisan basis, probably everyone believing they were trying to do the right thing, but what they…

I had gone back, actually, and I had mentioned 1975 and Senator Muskie's appointment as chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget, and that was the year the House Committee on the Budget was established and the Congressional Budget…

What has been amazing to me is, as I mentioned, from 1980 forward, there have been 16 major pieces of legislation. Most of this legislation passed on a strong bipartisan basis. I do not say this to be critical.

This is precisely the point. What if that system of barrage balloons as ill-advised as it might have been had precluded the development of radio electronic detection? That is what I am saying, is that I think we are ill-advised to preclude…

I think that the strong note that is important that the public understands and the Members of this House understand is the very strong bipartisan commitment, not only in the other pieces of legislation that have been proceeding through…

Could the gentleman address the issue of what the underfunding does to the leadership in terms of the types of decisions that they need to make, the day-to-day decisions based on the financial necessities of maintaining the forces…

Yesterday was a great day for this country. We instituted nine historic reforms in our congressional revolution, and we have begun a journey of restoring trust and confidence in the American Government. I am especially pleased with our…