David Thomas

I also join in congratulating the Senator from Arizona. This seems to be the most commonsense amendment we have seen since we have been discussing this issue. It provides choice and provides an opportunity for lower cost insurance, and it…

actually, this would be a lot more fun if it was real. It is the phoniest debate I have heard in a long, long time. If we look at the amendment, this significant move on the part of Florida is going to last until April 1, 2002; maybe April…

we have been involved now all week--and, I am sure, will be involved for some time longer--on the Patients' Bill of Rights. It is an issue that is very broad. Quite frankly, there are different points of view. I cringe a little bit when I…

I tell my friends briefly, in terms of a response, it is only 6 months, and the lines that are on the map are the lines that the Floridians agreed to. It is 100 miles from the Florida border, as agreed to by Florida's governor. So I…

I indicated that I would yield to the gentleman for a question. The gentleman then began continuing to make a statement. Therefore, in the remainder of my time, I will tell you this is a thinly veiled attempt to stop the Internal Revenue…

I can understand why some of the gentlemen on the floor are baffled. I am quite sure they were baffled as to why we would want to return some of the taxpayer money in the first place. That really is, I think, the fundamental argument. Let…

The idea here is to, first of all, ease the bureaucratic burden of trying to respond to millions of people who are inevitably going to call. I know the gentleman from Massachusetts believes he is of average intelligence, and, therefore…

I want to compliment everyone who worked on this particular bill. For a long time, the quote/unquote, SEC user fees were actually taxes, and there is a long record of the fact that it was a revenue raiser. In fact, it was a tax on…

I want to use some of the time that is available for our side to talk a little about the bill. I have not said much in relation to this bill, but it certainly is one of the most important issues that we will talk about. We have a great…

I want to talk about the direction the Senate has been taking. Certainly, we have many things to do. We have moved through a number of important issues --the budget and meaningful tax relief. We now move to education and energy. I have to…

I rise to talk about taxes, which is the focus of where we are, and prior to that, to mention that despite all the discussions we have had about certain issues, this Senate has accomplished quite a bit in the several months we have been in…

we, of course, have been dealing, over the last several weeks, with some of the most important issues that will be dealt with in this entire year, as we should. One, of course, is the budget. I think our success in the budget is holding…

I take a few minutes this morning to talk about a topic to which we will soon be moving. We have properly spent a good deal of time on the budget. We spent a good deal of time on taxes, although that is not finished yet. I congratulate the…

I do want to talk a moment about the nomination of Howard Baker to be Ambassador to Japan. I am chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Rim. We held a hearing today for Howard Baker. Fortunately, we were able to move it today…

we have been spending all of our time this week on taxes. I am delighted the tax bill has passed. Certainly there are different views on how to do it. There will always be different views when one raises the question of taxes or spending…

in conclusion, as was pointed out by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman), the majority is always willing to look at motions to instruct if they are, in fact, useful and appropriate. What we have seen during the course of this debate is…

continuing on my time, if the gentleman would look at the Democratic tax plan presented on the floor on three different occasions, the single largest dollar amount under one of the major provisions occurred in 2010; the second largest…

Mr. Speaker, as is usually the case with motions to instruct, it contains a number of phrases which seem controlling in nature. For example, under the first point and the A section, "shall not include"; B, "shall include provisions"; C…

reclaiming my time, I do not know that I have the power. It is a cooperative effort. But after this exercise and the clear feeling on the part of the gentleman that it is now outrageous and painful, that I found a new ally in trying to…

I guess everyone is thoroughly confused right now, based upon the statements made by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Why do we not do this in the light of day? Do we know where and how we are going to be spending any of this…

I rise to talk, again, about taxes. The legislation now before the Senate includes education, which we will be debating this afternoon and which we will be working on until the tax bill comes from the committee, and taxes--probably two of…

last week we had the opportunity to introduce a bill called the ``Rural Mental Health Accessibility Act of 2001.'' I am pleased to be joined by Senators Conrad, Domenici, Johnson, Roberts, and Nelson from Nebraska to bring forward the…

I suppose we are all hopeful the committee will soon come together with their proposal and have some agreement on the bill and bring it here. As we think more and more about the education bill, and we begin to think what are the elements…

we come to the floor again today to consider education. I think, unfortunately, we are still talking about the postcloture motion and have not yet had the opportunity actually to move to the bill. We are hopeful there will be some…

the authors of the underlying bill said that they addressed the issue, not that they had dealt with it. This motion to recommit is 22 pages of very specific directed information that I will address in a moment. We have had an excellent…