Thomas Foley: “The thing that is so exciting, as the gentleman from Minnesota and the gentlewoman from Washington and the gentleman…”

“The thing that is so exciting, as the gentleman from Minnesota and the gentlewoman from Washington and the gentleman from Georgia mentioned, is the fact that the new Congress is about change. It is about proving to the American public we did not come to Washington to be a part of a system. We came from the communities. We love our communities. We want to go back to our communities. More importantly, we want to go back to our communities with the respect that we asked them to send us here in Washington. The lockbox will provide us the opportunity for monies we save in the budget; if members of the freshman class or Members of Congress in general find $5 million or $10 million, the concept basically is to put that money in a reserve account, a lockbox, to pay off the Federal debt and deficit of this country. For too long, if somebody found a savings, if somebody found $10 million, and around here that is small money, I am sad to say to the American public, and $10 million to me is a fortune, so much money I cannot even envision, but up here they talk about billions as if it is, Do not worry about it, America, that is not a lot of money.”