Joe Cunningham: “I have been in this body for 10 years, and each year we have had continuing resolutions, both when I served in the…”

“I have been in this body for 10 years, and each year we have had continuing resolutions, both when I served in the minority and also in the majority. They are always unfortunate because it holds up the work of this House. I would say to my colleagues a little lesson in history, in the 107th Congress the House passed 58 bills, 58 bills that the other body refused to either take up or pass. They gridlocked them. I would say that this body did its work. We passed bills. And regardless of the gridlock in the other body, we did many things together, Republican and Democrats, that helped the American people. I worked with many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, including the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), whom I serve with on the Committee on Appropriations. Mr. Speaker, we intercepted a memo from James Carville, a political partisan, Democrat operative, and it was entitled, ``It's the Economy, Stupid,'' and he recommended two things to the other body, one that they not pass a budget. Why? Because a good example is prescription drugs. The House did its work. We passed prescription drug legislation two times in this body. The last time was for $350 billion, more than the other side of the aisle requested during the first go-round, yet it did not satisfy them. Carville and the other body, they requested $1.3 trillion for prescription drugs in their first go-round. Why? So they could bad mouth Republicans to specific interest groups.”