Scott Garrett: “Mr. Chairman, we come here this afternoon on the eve of one-quarter of the way through the 110th Congress, and we have…”

“Mr. Chairman, we come here this afternoon on the eve of one-quarter of the way through the 110th Congress, and we have to ask ourselves, what now that the Democrats are in control of this House have they wrought? Three things: The largest tax increase in America's history on America's families; secondly, a breaking of the rules and/or their promises; and finally, what we learned last night, slush funds in very important appropriations bills. If you were listening to this discussion last night, some of our friends on the other side of the aisle, in essence, justified their actions here today with this legislation by looking back to a couple of incidents in the past, back in the 1990s or what have you, and said, well, if it was done in the past, we're going to continue this tradition in the future. I think the gentleman from Minnesota raised the point before quite accurately. Did they not hear the message that the voters of this country sent in the November election? I can tell you, we heard that message loud and clear. The American public is tired of politics as usual. The American public is tired of the games in Washington. The American public is tired of changing the rules as you go along just to get your end. We heard that message, and that is why we came to the floor last night and today. We are not politicizing this. We are just trying to protect the American public on important issues such as homeland security.”