Marshall Sanford: “I rise here acknowledging the fact that people work very hard in Congress, but what I think we have to remind ourselves…”

“I rise here acknowledging the fact that people work very hard in Congress, but what I think we have to remind ourselves is the fact that we are not veterans, some of us are, we are not farmers, we are not teachers, all of whom deserve a COLA, but what we are is the elected representative Government of the United States of America, and as such I think we have to in essence be held to a higher standard because what the American public expects of us is that we lead by example. When Washington crossed the Delaware 200 years ago he did not say to the folks, ``You guys get in the boat, and I'll meet you on the other side.'' He got in the boat with them. And if my colleagues look at our budget, 73 percent of the cuts, the savings, whatever they want to call them, still come in the last 2 years of the budget, so there is much savings still expected from our American public, and as such I think we need to lead by example. The second reason I rise in support of this amendment is for the simple reason of sunshine.”