W. Todd Akin

The funny thing is, a number of us have served in legislative bodies for a number of years. One of the rules has always been the public never pays any attention to the process of how we go about passing legislation. You can complain about…

I am trying to figure out--I wish it were true that we could be obstructionists, because if we were obstructionists, that meant if we vote ``no,'' it would stop the bill. But they have got 40 more votes than we do, so how in the world…

Tomorrow there is going to be this big drama, I guess, 6-hour--maybe it will be pretty boring. I don't know. But it's supposed to be dramatic. Six hours of people sitting around a table talking about this same old health care plan…

When you start talking about what you're saying, the American public does not like these special deals--and special deals a lot of times happen in the darkness, in little dark corners, like the kind of places where cockroaches breed. And…

Did you know that there are supposedly 36--I know Missouri is one of them. That's my home State. There are 36 States that have legislation moving exempting the States from having to be required to purchase health care when the government…

You go to the head of the class. The whole purpose of the Department of Energy was to make sure we're not dependent on foreign oil.

Congressman Kingston, I am glad you mentioned that, because when I take a look at some of this uncertainty, I think of three nets that are being thrown over free enterprise. The first was a net on everything that has to do with energy. And…

So the first thing is if you take a look at what we have been doing, we have injected a whole lot of uncertainty into the system to begin with.

We have a lot of unemployment, we have a whole lot of Americans that would like to get jobs, and so the question is what can the government do to try to get those jobs going? And I have made a list of all the wrong things to do. These are…

What I was just talking about here on the floor a little bit with this great drama that's supposed to take place tomorrow, the question is, you know, drama, there's supposed to be some element of it being credible. A science fiction movie…

Excessive taxation is a big deal, because if you own a small business and you tax that guy really heavily, the small business owner is not going to have any money to invest in new equipment or new plants and things, so heavy taxation on a…

Hospital's in--my understanding is the hospital is in Connecticut; Medicaid dollars, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey; drug companies; extra cash for union health care plans. I have a list of some of these. Montana coal miners. Florida…

Well, I'm not exactly sure of that. My understanding was the bill was supposed to be released 24 hours from the day that they're talking about it, and the only thing I'd seen earlier this morning was outlines, and the outlines, of course…

In the next hour we're going to be talking about a subject that has caught the attention of Americans. It's, generally speaking, a boring subject, but now it's not become boring anymore, and that is the problem with the Federal Government…

You are telling me that the ACORN program, the one where we've got people going to jail for voter fraud and all other kinds of strange and weird behavior, registering illegals, registering people that don't exist, turning them out to vote…

Our topic this evening, and one that I think has received some coverage in the media, and is something that is of concern to many Americans, is the level of spending in the Federal Government, the budget that has been proposed, the size of…

What we attempted to do, and I think you were part of negotiating, trying to get this bill to be something that we could be proud of. And I think the deal was, How about we do this? How about we let the local superintendent of his school…

I tell you there is plenty of work to do. And it just needs some energy, some innovation both in Washington, D.C., but also at the State levels. What is the situation in Michigan in terms of unemployment? Do you have the same kind of…

Recall. You know, if you take a look at what the Federal Government was like when it was originally created, as I recall there were really only four laws. One of the laws was against piracy on the high seas. One of the laws was against…

If you really want to give bonuses to teachers, why don't you let the parents of the students have a say in how their performance would be? Because I will tell you, if you think back about all of your teachers that you have had, I can't…

Is that current model something that could be changed? Let's say you were to, a State were to basically say hey, we are going to start over again. We are going to do a different approach. Is that the kind of thing a State could really be…

How in the world could any statistics mean anything when you have got the situation you are talking about?

You know what is exciting is you are talking about that spirit of ingenuity that Americans have. One of the things people down here in the institutional part of our government, they think everybody has got to have a Ph.D. and be an expert…

It is kind of like Lucy with the football and Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. There is always a string on the piece of cheese, and they say, Come on, mouse, get the cheese. Then they reel the string in. And they have been doing…

The thing that surprises me, because I was a State legislator in the State of Missouri for 12 years. It seems like the States never seem to catch up to the scam.