Mr. Speaker, as we begin consideration of the substitute, I would like us to focus on something pretty central to the fundamentals of legislating. We ought to do as a Congress that which we can do. The substitute I bring forward will take…

I am pleased to respond to that concern by saying that negotiations at the State level are coming along very successfully, and so far 13 States have been successful at getting insurance companies to enter into an agreement to provide the…

I think that it is time that family farmers and small businesses have estate tax relief and that is why I have put forward this amendment which brings them estate tax relief effective January 1 of 2004. Again, let us put the rhetoric aside…

This really is not about biotech. It is about whether global agriculture trade will be conducted under the rules adopted by the countries pursuant to trade agreements. There is a procedure for evaluating the safety and soundness of…

this is quite a day in the life of Congress. We are going to pass a $350 billion tax cut, 75 percent of which goes to the wealthiest 5 percent of the households in this country. We are going to authorize the Federal Government to borrow…

there are two aspects to this bill which I think have very strong merit, and I am very pleased that they have been included; and I enjoyed working with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) in getting them into the now-final…

Do we want to lay on our children a higher national debt carried by our country or do we want a responsible budget? This budget authorizes immediately $984 billion, nearly $1 trillion in higher borrowing authority. You have got to figure…

this is a most extraordinary debate. Where I come from they mean what they say and they say what they mean. Let us look at this debate. In the first 10 minutes, the chairman of the Committee on the Budget talks against the resolution. He…

Mr. Chairman, as we consider this bill, which will strengthen penalties against kidnapping and aid law enforcement agencies to effectively prevent, investigate and prosecute crimes against children, we should also take this opportunity to…

I am a cosponsor of the legislation represented by the amendment and am pleased today to speak for its passage. I want to commend, in particular, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith), who in an exemplary bipartisan manner worked to build…

in 1990, President Bush, looking at runaway deficits, put his political career on the line, convened a bipartisan summit on the budget and produced some very important budget rules to get a handle on these out-of-control deficits. Perhaps…

I believe that by eliminating the budget rules, as you do in this resolution, the answer is clear: you have no intention of paying for it. You will pay for it on the debt that you will pass on to our children. We would propose in our…

I would just say back to my friend, the gentleman from Iowa, the issue is over 5 years, can we not agree we ought to balance the budget? The gentleman's plan does not balance the budget, the plan runs up on the debt. The gentleman has run…

Reclaiming my time, because what the gentleman has done is lay out very clearly where he comes down. He comes down on behalf of the richest three-tenths of 1 percent and the gentleman is not about to let those family farmers in Iowa or…

Reclaiming my time, it is absolutely permanent for estates of $6 million and below. Effective January 1 of 2003, if you are a couple with an estate valued at $6 million and below, we forever repeal your estate tax exposure. What would be…

I applaud the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth) for his attention to the issue of long-term care. There is no doubt we need to do something about this issue. Currently, some 5.2 million Americans over the age of 65 and 4.6 million…

Mr. Speaker, obviously in light of the financial mismanagement of some of the major corporations of this country and the investor losses we have seen, this Congress has got a lot of work to do. Thank goodness we have our ranking member…

I am pleased to state my strong support for H. Res. 459. Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled 2 to 1 that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because it describes the United States…

At the heart of what this debate is all about is a clear choice, whether we should provide a prescription drug benefit for seniors through the Medicare program or whether we should send money to insurance companies to induce them to…

These are dangerous times when it comes to child pornography. The Internet has allowed distribution in ways never imagined before, making it much more prevalent throughout our society, at the very time we have a Supreme Court ruling…

Sometimes in this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, we spend so much time talking about where we disagree, and we disagree on a lot, that we do not get around to evaluating where we agree and where we can agree. We have just heard a very informed…

life is full of choices. The choice before us involves repeal of the estate tax versus the choice of maintaining full benefit payments to the Social Security program. There will be 78 million Americans that will turn 65 sometime in the…

Mr. Speaker, I am very astounded the other side would suggest that the cost of our package is more than their package. The 10-year figure makes it very clear. The cost of our package is $5 billion. And we had that offset, although the…

I think about a farm family, a farm couple, say in their eighties. Say they have an estate of $5 million. Listening to the debate today, they must be thinking, thank goodness for the majority, thank goodness they are helping us. In…

Mr. Speaker, I would observe that we would provide relief to the gentleman's farmer constituents to the tune of $6 million next year for a farm couple, no estate tax if they are below that. Under their legislation, there will be estate tax…