I would say that the most interesting aspect of the November 8 election is that 62 percent of the American people did not vote. We do not discuss that. Always, it seems to me that the more important the issues are, the less discussion…

It think maybe we all want to summarize our views, and the fear that I have is that this country increasingly is moving away from our democratic traditions into an oligarchy, and all that those tax breaks for the wealthy do is they make…

Are these the same group of people who are talking about cutting back on nutrition programs for hungry people and senior citizens because we have a terrible deficit? I just wanted to be clear. I was a little bit confused. Are these the…

And the rich get richer, and meanwhile with that money they can contribute huge amounts of money to both political parties. This institution itself, 20 percent of the Members at least are millionaires. We expect that with the high cost of…

Obviously, that is what Reagonomics was about. That is what the 1980's was about. During the 1980's, the richest one-half of 1 percent owned 55 percent of the total wealth that was created in that period. In the midst of all of this…

the gentleman is correct, I think, in saying that polls in America support the death penalty. People want judges and juries to have the option to use the death penalty. I think the gentleman will not disagree with me that polls and studies…

I think the Fields amendment is eminently sensible. At a time when many of our friends are saying, get the big, bad Federal Government off the backs of local communities, what the Fields amendment says to judges and juries all over…

We are talking about people like Mr. Eisner of Walt Disney earning well over I believe $100 million in income a year. Let me mention something else, because the problem goes well beyond just the United States. There was a study also done…

a recent study showed that the CEO's of 23 of the Nation's 27 top job destroyers, these are the large corporations who are downsizing, who are throwing workers out onto the street, those particular CEO's received raises last year averaging…

We hear over and over again about welfare reform. We all agree that welfare reform is important. What we do not hear a whole lot is corporate welfare, the well over $100 billion in Federal subsidies that are going to large corporations and…

My concern here is to make sure that in what would most likely be a corporate crime, multiple victims are notified. When somebody stabs somebody we know what is going on. If somebody rips off hundreds of people, it is very likely those…

all over this country, working people and elderly people and those people who do not have a lot of money are wondering about what is going on in Washington with regard to the bailout of Mexico. We have always been told that if people want…

So you have the American people against the bailout, you have the Mexican people against the bailout. And one of the frustrations that all of us share is that we know that, if that vote had come to the floor of the House, the U.S…

Essentially what we want is two things. We need far more information about this bailout and, second of all, and most importantly, we want the U.S. Congress, which presumably was elected to represent the American people, to be able to vote…

There almost seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount of money that is being spent and the level of discussion that takes place here. We are seeing a whole lot of discussion on the National Council on the Humanities and…

All right. What we should appreciate is that this loan guarantee to Mexico puts us at risk for over double what our entire foreign aid package is today. Is that correct?

The main point I wanted to make very briefly is that it is not for sure that this $40 billion loan guarantee is without significant risk, and that is the main point I wanted to make.

I was on a national television program the other day and one of the proponents of his bailout was saying, well, the Mexican economy is basically in good shape; they are having a short-term cash flow problem. But basically it is strong. One…

My friend from Oregon is exactly right, as is my friend from Mississippi. My friend from Mississippi makes an interesting point, if he will allow me to amplify his statement a little bit, that all over this country there are people who…

Fourteen months ago many of us, all of us, and many other of our colleagues told the American people that we thought the NAFTA Agreement was going to be a disaster. On the other side we had the President, we had the Republican leadership…

I have no argument with my friend that it is important for us to know the costs of the legislation we are proposing, no argument about that. But I think my friends would also not deny that some legislation is cost effective. If one could…

in all honesty, I really sincerely believe this should not be a political debate for this reason: Any sensible business person invests in the future. He or she purchases, say, new machinery, new technology. If the only part of the equation…

That is right. What you have proposed which makes sense is you want an objective analysis of the costs involved in a mandate. Fair enough. I agree with you. It seems to me what we want is an objective, nonpolitical analysis as best as they…

I think the points that the gentleman is making are absolutely correct. Ostensibly we live in a democracy, and ostensibly it is the President of the United States and the House and the Senate that represent the American people, and…

It frightens me to think that if the global economy means that the future of a decent standard of living of the American people rests on the prosperity of an authoritarian corrupt government in Mexico, then we are in very, very deep…