Dear Dad: My day began when a guy who was taking a thousand-dollar contribution from an alleged Chinese spy decided that I could not offer an amendment to keep American military bases open. Later on this same guy who took a thousand-dollar…

I regret that we really do not do enough. We are now down to a fleet of about 300 ships. And at the rate we are going, we are on our way to a fleet of 140 ships. Fleet age used to be about 30 years. We are now down to keeping them for…

2 years ago today, my son's 13th birthday, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) told us that his tax breaks then would create jobs. It did, 229 of them, but the rest of America lost 2 million jobs. He said it would stimulate growth…

Those of you of my Republican friends, and I do consider you my friends, who ran on the basis of a balanced budget, if you vote for this budget, you lied. Two years ago you came to the floor and said there was a surplus. We owed the Social…

I met a kid from Ocean Springs, Mississippi. His last name is Rhodes. I asked him should we be here... I am keeping women from getting raped. I am keeping children from getting murdered. I am keeping old folks from getting drug out into…

before anyone thinks that I am trying to impress upon them that I am a biblical scholar, I will tell my colleagues I am not, but I happened to listen to one Sunday evening. His name is Father Dennis Carver, and he was in Pass Christian…

I very much want to thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) for what he had to say. I too heard the President of the United States just a couple of weeks ago stand in this well and tell the American people we would not pass our…

we are barely 3 hours into this Congress and the political hedonists of this Congress have struck their first blow. You know hedonism, if it feels good do it regardless of the consequences. Well, that is exactly what those people who have…

along with my colleagues, I would like to wish my very heartfelt thanks and farewell to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump). He will be sadly missed. He served this Nation very well since the early 1940s as a young seaman in the Navy…

if I may, since I have seen a tendency for some people in the bureaucracy of government to somehow lose sight of the value of our veterans, would you consider a letter to that extent to the Secretary? The Secretary has got a lot of things…

Again, as a part of that letter, I would like to hear the Secretary's response because I would sure as heck hope that we do not have to wait another year before some of these injustices are finally made right. I thank you very much for…

like every one of you, I love my country, but I do not think we serve our country when we lie to the people who sent us here. In the past month I have heard no one less than the Speaker of this House and the majority whip tell the American…

there is something that somehow is not mentioned very often on this floor, and that is our Nation is going broke. We certainly have military threats, but we have an even bigger threat of our Nation going broke. The gentleman from Iowa (Mr…

Speaker Hastert, today marked the 1,355th day that you have been Speaker of the House. During that time, in particular, in the past 1 year, while the Republicans have had a majority in the House, my colleagues will recall a year ago, they…

Mr. Speaker, my colleague and former firefighter from Pennsylvania makes an excellent point. There are 32,000 fire departments in this Nation. Do my colleagues not think we ought to have at least one of them in every State that has got the…

I am sorry that you left the floor, because I would like to remind you that on your watch, our Nation has now squandered a trillion dollars on interest on the national debt. That is a thousand times a thousand times a thousand times a…

Mr. Speaker, it is a sad fact, but a fact, that in the past year a biological attack on the United States has gone from ``what if'' to ``what is next.'' The person who perpetrated the anthrax attacks that have killed about five people in…

in newspapers all across this great Nation today, the headline ran that yet another company had declared bankruptcy. This time it was WorldCom, and this time it was the largest bankruptcy in American history. Just a month ago it was Enron…

in the 1,300 days that you have been Speaker, you will not let us vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, yet you have added through your leadership $511,040,208,939 to the Federal debt. That is more debt than was…

about a week ago the President of the United States went to Wall Street in the wake of the accounting scandals and the scandals that have caused so many Americans to lose so much money, so much of their life savings, so much money that…

I do commend anyone who tries to save the taxpayers a buck, and I have actually voted with you guys on these things tonight. But the net effect of what you have done tonight is sort of like a flea biting into the hide of an elephant and…

as we read about the scandals in the private sector and as we hear the President go to Wall Street to try to get them to do a better job with their accounting practices, it strikes me that the President would have much better spent his…

I know I am not supposed to address folks up there in the balcony, but they have got to find it a little strange that it is about 10:30 here in Washington and Congress is not here. In fact, in the whole of this week, Speaker Hastert…

I believe I am a cosponsor of that resolution, and I am going to vote for it. But what I object to is the continued reference on this House floor, the continued effort on the part of some Members of this body to deceive the American public…

There is something we cannot run away from. Two weeks ago today this body, in mostly a party-line vote, voted to raise the debt limit by $750 billion. Now that is a thousand time a thousand time a thousand times 750. ... In order to give…