David Obey

This Congress is broken. This place does not work.

I can understand a certain amount of confusion, but that was not confusion; that was madcap chaos that I saw on that street.

The fact is without the earmarking process, the White House and its anonymous bureaucrats would make every single spending decision in government.

The fact is, without the earmarking process, the White House and its anonymous bureaucrats would make every single spending decision in government.

I would like to make sure that the money that is spent is actually going to do something, because it is a lot of money, and it is a big problem to deal with.

I must say I am amused when I hear the reference to 'socialized medicine.' Does anybody really believe that it's socialized medicine if we are putting $2 billion in this legislation in order to help change our medical records from paper…

Madam Speaker, the last people in the world I will take lectures from on fiscal responsibility are those Members of this House who voted for the Bush economic programs that borrowed $1.2 trillion and then took us into a war which, before…

And every person who loses one-third to one-half the value of their 401(k)s because of the continuing unraveling of the economy. That is who will pay. We need to stop the political rhetoric and recognize this problem is serious enough that…

I have no objection to what the language in this motion to instruct conferees says. I do have one caution: every day that we do not take action, an additional 20,000 Americans lose their jobs. And that is accelerating. I don't intend to go…

I think that if we have large and serious economic crisis coming at us, that response needs to be large, bold and aggressive, and that's what I believe the President's package is. Now, this package is $820 billion. It represents less than…

Every week that we delay is another 100,000 or more people unemployed. I don't think we want that on -- on any of our consciences.

Every week we delay is another 100,000 or more people unemployed. I don't think we want that on any of our consciences.

States, and Wisconsin among them, have long believed that passenger rail is the missing link in our national transportation policy.

I want to thank the Chairman for his extraordinary commitment towards recognizing how important infrastructure is to the recovery of this country and of the economy.

Mathematics is the universal language, but so is pain and so is the human hunger for opportunity.

He is a great gain for the executive branch of Government, assuming he is confirmed, but he is a great loss to the Congress as an institution.

Can you name one or can't you? The fact is there's not a single piece of Member pork in this bill. You ought to know.

I think those GIs recognize this is supposed to be a seamless society. We're supposed to help take care of the people who are in the most trouble, and I don't apologize for using some of the money that we use for veterans benefits. I don't…

The GI Bill paid back to this society $7 for every dollar that it cost. There are unfortunately some people in this House who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Fortunately, the people who support this third amendment…

We pay for that by providing what the majority leader refers to as a patriots' premium, a one-half of 1 percent increase in taxes for the most fortunate people in this society who make more than a million bucks a year. If you think that is…

I hope the House will forgive my laryngitis today. Madam Speaker, I have just heard complaints from the minority side of the aisle about the process by which this proposal is being brought to us. This criticism about process comes from the…

I was here for those secret sessions. And I think the great utility of having another one, given the mumbo jumbo that I heard at the last three, is simply to demonstrate the almost total uselessness of secret sessions.

I simply want to express my profound thanks to him for the service he has given the House in general and most specifically the service he has given to the Appropriations Committee. We hate to see him leave, but sometimes even the best of…

Even though it's not Halloween, I'm concerned that some Members may be seeing ghosts. So I simply want to say that the gentleman from Florida raised concerns that because this is an amendment between the houses that we might not be fully…

Everyone knows that I have a great deal of affection for the gentleman from Florida. I think he makes as good an argument for a bad case as you can possibly find. Let me simply say that this recommittal motion is very easy to understand…