Roy Cooper: “the gentleman is focusing on the problem, and I think the American people are hungry for more facts, more real…”

“the gentleman is focusing on the problem, and I think the American people are hungry for more facts, more real information about the situation we are in. I would like to encourage them to look on the Web site of an institution called the Cato Institute. It is here in Washington, D.C. It is not a Democratic group. If anything, they are mainly Republican, but they issued a report on May 3, 2005. It is by Stephen Slavinski, and it talks about how under this Republican-only government, because Republicans run the White House and the Senate and the House of Representatives, we have seen the biggest spending binge since Lyndon Baines Johnson in the 1960s. It is not just defense-related. If we look at nondefense spending programs, it is the biggest spending binge since Richard Nixon. Most Americans do not know this, and they do not know that we just went through arguably the worst year in American fiscal history. So I appreciate the gentleman sharing the message. Several of our colleagues have arrived, and it is probably appropriate at this time to recognize them.”