Bob Wise: “I am going to read a list of names. What is wrong with this list? Madison. Adams. Franklin. Jefferson. Wise. Gingrich.…”

“I am going to read a list of names. What is wrong with this list? Madison. Adams. Franklin. Jefferson. Wise. Gingrich. Mr. Speaker, if you said that the last two should not be confused tonight with the first four, you are absolutely correct. No one is going to confuse what is happening tonight with Thomas Jefferson or John Adams or Benjamin Franklin. Careful consideration was what the Constitution was about. What everyone should understand, there has not been one hearing on this, not one committee action. The previous speaker said what is wrong with sending it to the States. When we send it to the States, we send it as is, and, yes, it is fair to let the States vote on it, but have us perfect it first before we send it there. I have to ask another question. If two-thirds is good for raising taxes for protecting Rupert Murdoch, for instance, then what is wrong with two-thirds for some other sacred areas? What about Social Security cuts when beneficiaries pay more out of pocket? Should not that have been two-thirds? What about Medicaid cuts? I think if we are going to ask the middle class in this country to potentially pay $36,000 a year for nursing home costs that Medicaid has been paying for their loved ones, that might be worth two-thirds. That is certainly an increase. Somebody adding $3 or $4,000 on a student loan, and you proposed that earlier, Mr. Speaker, and the Republican Party, and yet that would not require two-thirds vote.…”