Lloyd Bentsen

What is so different about preparing a regulatory budget from preparing a fiscal budget?

Bentsen spoke approvingly.

If there's a vote on this, Bob, I'm sure I can count on your vote.

Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.

If we fail to fix [the system] now, the next financial crisis we face will again reveal its flaws.

What we are seeing is a situation that enables banks to shop for the most lenient Federal regulator.

Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.

In fact, that is true. We now are projected to pay three times the amount of interest over the next 10 years, almost $2 trillion, as opposed to a little more than half a trillion dollars that we were looking at last May of 2001. This is $2…

I am not sure why we are debating this amendment in the first place; but the fact that we are, I think there is one flawed argument that has been made. If one cannot use the money for hard purposes in the first place, I do not think one…

Mr. Chairman, I rise in qualified support of H.R. 2311, the FY 2002 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. I recognize the incredibly difficult circumstances Chairman Sonny Callahan, Ranking Member Peter Visclosky have endured in crafting…

The question is raised on the roll-over period and the prospective nature talks about interest acquired. The bill reads the homestead as interest acquired by the debtor, and this is getting somewhat technical or minute, I guess, during…

Mr. Speaker, to follow up where we were, a question that I think is extremely important is the question of homeowners today in Texas and other States which have a broader homestead exemption. Are these provisions prospective in nature in…

And to the extent that one after the 2 years changes residence within the State, the equity they roll over, as I understand it, would be an exempt item under the State homestead law. Would it be additional equity rolled into the new…

The other question is after you have exceeded the 2-year period and you increase the value of your home through addition or property values rise, are you under a new 2-year period?

The House also adopted language that allowed States to opt out of the cap on the exemption of homestead. This is something that the Federal Government has allowed the States to determine since the founding of the country. What I would ask…

It is significant because yesterday, Democrats were told and, in fact, a number of Republicans as it turned out, were told that we could not offer a broad-based, voluntary, universal prescription drug program under Medicare because the…

The question though is this: The Members on the floor of the House would be voting to cut a specific program that they think is going in a lockbox, and the members of the other body would be voting to cut a specific program. But then the…

Reclaiming my time, my only concern is it would be something people would say we are going to vote against a program we do not like, but we will take it out of a program we like.

I ran into more and more seniors who said the biggest concern they had was the cost of prescription drugs, and the problems that they had of having to choose between buying their groceries at the end of the month or buying the…

I strongly support it; that it includes two important provisions which would correct the opt-out language related to the equity cap for State homestead laws. Without these opt-outs, I think citizens in my State of Texas and several other…

I think it is also a mistake that we are spending such little time to debate this issue. This is a very critical issue for the Nation, and I am afraid that this underscores the way this House is going to operate on issues that should be…

I think this amendment is wrong, but I also think the whole consideration of the underlying text at this point in time is wrong. ... I just think this is a terrible policy mistake. I also do not understand exactly the gentlewoman's…

And under Section 127, would a routine prepayment within the 730-day period; as my colleague knows, with one's mortgage statement they can have a routine prepayment on top of their annual mortgage payment or a home equity payment, for that…

So once I have established the 2-year residency, I can claim homestead on the house I am in now. The house, if I sell that house and buy another house, that house and each house thereafter, so long as I maintain the initial 2-year…