David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, sent a memo to the Republican party leaders. In that memo he said…”

“Mr. Chairman, Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, sent a memo to the Republican party leaders. In that memo he said: ``Look, whenever you are talking about cuts for these programs, do not talk about the program because programs have friends. So simply talk about the bureaucrats.'' That is what is happening here. This amendment is being presented as though it is a discipline for bureaucrats. Let me tell my colleagues what happens. When they continue to cut back at OSHA the way they have done in this bill and the way they want to intensify it by this amendment, you assure that people are going to be injured and you assure that people are going to die. Now, when my father ran a floor covering business many years ago, I worked with him in it for 7 years. I worked with asbestos products. Johns-Manville had known since 1939 that asbestos caused cancer. The first time I knew about it is the first day I served on the Labor-HEW Appropriations Subcommittee, and I walked in here and I listened to the NIH person testifying. And they told us that 40 percent of British shipyard workers who had worked with asbestos had contracted mesothelioma and were dead. Now, mesothelioma is a form of cancer. So I think I have a pretty good idea of what is going to get me eventually, especially because I was a heavy smoker in those days.…”