Charles W. Stenholm: “I wish we could do it every week, find a time to talk about not just perhaps this issue, but some of the other issues in…”

“I wish we could do it every week, find a time to talk about not just perhaps this issue, but some of the other issues in which we have found ourselves in some very, very strict partisan differences. Just a few clarifying comments. The first one is when I hear mandatory spending being out of control, since when? Since when can 218 Members of the House of Representatives not control any spending that we wish to control? I commend the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith). He is one of the few Members on either side of the aisle that has been willing to talk about Social Security and making some of the hard choices that have to go into eventually saving Social Security for my grandchildren. And I look forward to working with him on that endeavor. I wish we had had that on the floor last year. I wish we had it on the floor this year. I hope we have it on the floor next year. I get disturbed when we say we cannot do that again until after the 2004 elections. That bothers me because 2011 is getting awfully close to where we need to be.”