I say, Madam Speaker, to my Republican colleagues, you campaigned effectively, you beat us good, you ran on the agenda of defeating health care and repealing it. Now you're doing it. Own it. Admit what it is you are doing. This is not a…

Our job, as you know, is to legislate, and we will be judged by our actions, by our deeds, more than by our rhetoric. Let me just say that the aspirations that have been enunciated by many of our Republican leaders are ones I quite admire…

I want to talk about this question of will promises made be promises kept. It was the recurring question that was asked by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle when we were in the majority. Sometimes it may be uncomfortable…

The bottom line is, anytime we pass a major piece of legislation, we should have the humility to acknowledge it can be improved--and we all do. We can make it better. We can make it stronger. But this totally destroys things that we have…

I thank the Member from New York. Let me start by acknowledging two things: One, the Republican majority won the election and has the right to bring this rules package with changes to the floor. Number two, there are some good provisions…

The challenge, I think, every person who is elected to Congress faces is: How do you challenge the institution but respect it? How do you stretch the limits but abide by tradition and see its importance? David Obey has managed, over the…

With all the back and forth, what we really have before us are two problems facing America. One is too few jobs: 9.8 percent of Americans who want work are out of work--15 million people. Millions more are so discouraged that they are the…

Mr. Speaker, America faces two great challenges: One, we have too few jobs. Over 15 million Americans who are looking for work can't find it. Even millions more are so discouraged, they don't even go out. Number 2, too much debt…

The American middle class has been built on having jobs that allow families to pay their bills, to send their kids to college, to own a home, to save for their own retirement. The American middle class has been under assault; their wages…

America faces, right now, two great challenges. One is high unemployment--we have got to put people back to work--and the other is an energy policy that is not as clean as it needs to be. It is not as sustainable as it must be, and it is…

Today, 40 of my colleagues are joining me to call on the Wall Street banks that are continuing to totally disrespect the American taxpayer to do the right thing. In a report issued last week, compensation master Kenneth Feinberg identified…

When it comes to providing unemployment benefits for people who had no responsibility for getting us here, when it comes to the question of who is going to pay the price, should it be the victims of these reckless decisions, the…

If there's going to be honest discussion about what caused this debt, then we've got to go back in history--and not distant history--to acknowledge that it was the reckless spending policies of the Republican administration and George Bush…

America needs jobs. The unemployment is too high, and there are concrete things that we can do to create jobs. One is to pass the Home Star Energy Retrofit bill into law. The Senate has to act. The House passed it on a bipartisan basis…

The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) and I are speaking to you today about credit card relief for small businesses and merchants, and as we are, credit card lobbyists are roaming the halls trying to water down a very key provision…

And that is that despite the gross domestic product increasing, despite the positive signs that have been cited by you and Mr. Ryan, this is still a depression for any American who doesn't have his or her job. And when you have 10 percent…

Thank you, Mr. Murphy. You know, when you are talking about the Chinese yuan and currency manipulation, that's far removed from most people on Main Street, but it has a real impact, especially on our manufacturing economy. And I am among…

2 weeks ago, small businesses and consumers scored a major victory, finally, against abusive credit card practices by big banks and Visa MasterCard. By a strong bipartisan vote of 64-33, the Senate passed an amendment to the Wall Street…

We have a common goal here, and that is to put the 25 percent of construction workers who are out of work back to work. Home Start helps them do that. It will help homeowners who want to save energy and save on their fuel bills to do that…

I want to remind folks of the broad basis of support from unusual allies--the National Association of Manufacturers, a key vote; U.S. Chamber of Commerce, key vote; National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association--that's 6,000…

Let me talk a little bit about why Home Star makes sense. This is a partnership. Government is putting up some money but homeowners are going to make decisions about refitting their homes and insulating them. Businesses are going to make…

A great nation does not shrink from its challenges. It faces them directly. We face serious challenges to create jobs in a tough economy, to move away from the dirty fuels of the 19th century into the cleaner fuels of the 21st, and using…

We have a debate on health care, but the fundamental question that we face is whether we were going to stick with the status quo or we were going to put a stake in the ground to have a health care system where all are covered and all help…

last week we saw two stories about Goldman Sachs. It made record profits of $1 billion a month for the past 3 months and it was sued for civil fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the manner in which it made that money…

The salaries are totally out of control; $145 billion in bonus pool to the banks after they have been bailed out by the taxpayer is not acceptable. Everybody, I think on both sides of the aisle, is concerned about greed being too much a…