Kevin Brady: “the American dream is unique to our Nation. It means that no matter where we were born or of what means, if we work hard…”

“the American dream is unique to our Nation. It means that no matter where we were born or of what means, if we work hard enough, if we want it bad enough, we can be anything, anything we want to be in this life, including a Member of Congress. These days I am not so sure that American dream is going to be around for our young people. Today the average cost of winning an open seat in Congress is just about a million dollars. It is a million dollars, and it is doubling every 4 years. That means a lots of good people in my community and a lot of good people in years to come are not going to be able to raise their hands to run for Congress because they do not have a million dollars; they do not even know where they would find it. Well, it is not that perhaps the very wealthy cannot make good decisions. The point is, in a representative democracy like ours, I do not want to wake up some day and see that people from all walks of life cannot serve in this great body. I am convinced they can. The Hutchinson bill takes a big step in restoring us to a citizen Congress from all walks of life. It is balanced. It does not give an edge to either political party, and it is constitutionally sound. Today let me make a prediction. Shays-Meehan will pass this House and Shays-Meehan will die yet another death in the Senate, as it did last year. Now, for some that is not a problem, but for me it is.”