Ted Poe: “this morning I was talking to my friend Sammy Mahan. He is from Baytown, Texas. He is a wrecker driver, and has five…”

“this morning I was talking to my friend Sammy Mahan. He is from Baytown, Texas. He is a wrecker driver, and has five wreckers under his service. He was asking me about the stimulus bill. And he said, ``How are we going to pay for it?'' And I said, ``Well, we don't have the money, so we are probably going to have to borrow it maybe from the Chinese. Eventually there is going to be a tax increase.'' And he said, ``How much is it going to cost?'' And I said, ``$790 billion.'' Then he said, ``No. How much is it going to cost me?'' I said, ``It is about $10,000 per family, is what they say.'' Then he said, ``Well, I don't have $10,000; and unlike you government boys, I can't spend money I don't have. So I want you to opt me out of this deal.'' And I said, ``What do you mean, `opt me out'?'' He replied, ``Give me a form. I want to sign it. You take $10,000 off that $790 billion, and I don't want to pay it because I don't have the money.'' Madam Speaker, I suspect that if most Americans read this bill and they realized how much it was going to cost them personally, they would want to opt out of this deal. We need to come up with a plan, but this isn't the deal. And since people I represent can't opt out, I am going to opt out for them. And that's just the way it is.”