Emanuel Cleaver: “this morning I rose from my slumber and turned on C-SPAN, as I always do, and caller after caller mentioned that they…”

“this morning I rose from my slumber and turned on C-SPAN, as I always do, and caller after caller mentioned that they interpret what goes on here in this body as irrelevant, that we don't listen to the American people. Of course, if they are talking about the war, which most Americans want ended, they are right. If they are referring back to the Terri Schiavo incident, they are right. But many of them were talking about the SCHIP program. It is troublesome to me that we will not provide health insurance for 10 million children. I don't attack the President, I don't condemn my colleagues and call them names, but I have got to say that it is embarrassing that the dreams of the American public show up here on this floor to die. This has become the burial ground for American dreams.”