David Thomas

What is the rationale for combining Social Security and a private annuity program?

I am here to tell you that today in every way, we are getting better and better. Are we perfect? No. What you have in front of you is a piece of legislation sponsored by the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, cosponsored by the…

I will tell my friend who said that the solution is to simply extend the Andean Pact, it means the African provisions are out, the Caribbean provisions are out and all of the help, as the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) said, in…

I will tell the gentleman, as I said both privately and publicly, we are currently analyzing the situation. We have been provided by our friend from American Samoa an amendment something other than simply banning. That is a significant…

It is clear what has to be done. Senators from both sides of the aisle need to join with the administration and, indeed, with the Members of the House to put together a bill which we can pass. This business of continuing to talk about the…

The Alternative Minimum Tax elimination requested by the President is not retroactive. It is a 1 percent stimulus for the economy: $100 billion over the first 12 months, 1 percent, and it costs $160 billion over 10. Even former Secretary…

Mr. Speaker, in her exuberance, the gentlewoman from Florida indicated that World War II was fought without deficit spending. I believe if she will check the record, there was significant deficit spending, because our job was to win the…

I reject categorically the claims that no Democrat ideas are included in this bill. This is a bipartisan compilation of ideas.

The fact is, we have a reason for not moving. We need a commitment to move more quickly. In spite of all the excuses and all the reasons, we haven't moved quickly. We are very much behind. We have a good many vacancies that need to be…

I hope so as well. One other observation: We have these items now that are of such high priority that have to do with security, and I think we need to be very watchful that we do not find ourselves using security as a vehicle for doing…

The idea of being able to object is not a brand new idea. It was exercised by you when you were in the minority; isn't that true?

I understand that. I agree with the Senator that we need to move forward. Another point. When there are bills with a special purpose, such as airport security, and provisions are added that have nothing to do with it, when you are in the…

The idea that we in the minority ought to be involved is something we learned from you when you were in the minority. So it is not a brand new idea. When the majority brings bills forward, they need to work with everyone here so we can…

I agree. The only reason for dropping this language from the bill is that it is redundant.

Absolutely. The Senate voted overwhelmingly to end FPI's mandatory preference on DOD contracts, and we have not and would not agree to any amendment that would undermine that action. As Senator Levin stated, last week's vote sent a clear…

I am asking the House that it insist on its constitutional prerogative as the sole originator of revenue measures, notwithstanding the meritorious aspects of any particular desired piece of legislation.

If the gentleman would again yield, I would tell the gentleman there is no need for $3 billion to raise taxes. There are a number of administrative changes, cleaning up provisions that are already in the law that the gentleman was…

We hear from the leader we will move forward. We have a lot of things to do. Yet we spend the whole day, frankly, accomplishing very little.

I am concerned that when we have before us an important issue such as this energy bill, which really bears a lot on where we are going in this whole area of energy--and it is very important to me and to the American people--we get the…

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…

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…

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…

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…