David Thomas

I am waiting for one of our Senators. In the meantime, let me again say how important it is that we move on with what we started to do in this Chamber. We have been working on the education bill now for a very long time. The committee has…

we have been focusing for the last 2 weeks on education. Education is probably the answer that is most often given in terms of priorities people think are important. Yet we seem to have a difficult time moving forward. I don't think there…

we are, of course, poised this week to take on one of the most important issues we will face during this year. That is the issue of education. As we talk about issues over the country and as we take polls, education is the first issue the…

Mr. Speaker, Members should oppose the Democrat substitute amendment because it denies the across-the-board tax relief that the American people want and demand. The Democrats dangle partial relief but we repeal the death tax. Let us set…

I note that the gentleman, in his exuberance, might have left a false impression that under the Democrat substitute every American has a $4 million exemption in their bill. That is not the case. In fact, it is far from it. In addition to…

as my colleagues and I get into this discussion of H.R. 8 and the Democratic substitute, we ought not to lose sight of the fundamentals in this debate. H.R. 8 repeals the estate or death tax; and the Democratic substitute does not. I was…

Mr. Speaker, just in case anybody believes any of those figures that were mentioned by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Joint Committee on Taxation places a $185 billion price tag on the bipartisan H.R. 8 proposal. The…

I think the debate today has been very good. H.R. 8 seeks repeal of the death tax, and the substitute by my friend and colleague on the Committee on Ways and Means, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), sought relief. If one listens to…

I wish to tell my friend from Indiana that I ran 10 times before I was given the ability to vote on a measure to repeal the death tax. So it took us a long time to get here. I might say it also required a change in the majority in the…

the issue the Senate is debating is bankruptcy. We will also be dealing with education, and we will be dealing with the budget. Somewhat overlying all these issues is the idea of tax relief, of doing something with the tax burden of…

I believe that pretty well clears the air in terms of what some folks want to do with other people's money. I believe that the point of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) was that there are a number of Americans who do not pay…

I thought that what we heard for the last hour was how quickly Republicans were moving, and that we just should not really move this quickly on a tax cut. I thought I just heard my friend and colleague from New York now indicate that we…

at some point I do think we have to get realistic in terms of our arguments against this bill. The title of the bill is the Economic Recovery and Relief Act of 2001. That is this year. Despite all the arguments that are being made on the…

Mr. and Mrs. America, help is on the way, H.R. 3. This bill is only seven pages long. How ironic. The usual complaint about congressional bills is that they are about as long as War and Peace or they weigh between 10 or 12 pounds. Seven…

I tell my friend, he probably ought not to use Herbert Hoover as an example. That President raised taxes and plunged us into the Depression. We are here cutting taxes. Mr. Speaker, talk is cheap. We hear talk about the weather, we hear…

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I have to say, that the Democrat leadership has no credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility. They are the ones that were in charge and who drove up the debt. They point to Reaganomics as the reason for the…

One of the phrases that struck my ear from the minority leader was as far as taxes are concerned, it appears that it is going to be my way or the highway. Mr. Speaker, one of the difficulties we have with that is that when you look at this…

We are going to debate lots of issues. We went on an issue yesterday which was passed. We are going to go to bankruptcy today. We will talk about a lot of issues. But the real issue we need to work towards and keep in mind, it seems to me…

We have not had an energy policy in the United States, I am sorry to say, for the last 8 years. As a result, we did not look at what the demand was going to be, where the supply was going to be, and, indeed, have found ourselves depending…

I rise to speak a few moments today on energy and energy policy. Certainly, this is one of the issues President Bush has talked about, and we have talked about it for some time in the Congress, the lack of a policy on energy. The President…

we are talking about the budget this morning, about the tax reductions that the President will speak of this evening, I think talking about the importance of how the budget is arranged, how it matches the needs of our people, of our…

I will continue on with a few more comments about the national security issue, which is being highlighted this week, of course, by the President. We have talked about the most obvious issue dealing with the military; that is, having to do…

I want to begin some conversation and discussion about the topic of the week, which the President has been working on certainly, and that is strengthening our national security. I suspect most people would agree that the responsibility for…

this, obviously, is the week and the time to be talking about taxes, tax relief, and tax reductions. It is an appropriate time to deal with all of the involved issues. Certainly, the President has talked a great deal about his tax plan not…

I do not know of anyone else who follows a course in which his professional action is paralleled by his personal action. Any time I have been in a closed room with the gentleman from Texas, and we have had to reconcile a difference, the…