Bob Wise: “what does the Speaker's dinner tonight, called Dining for Dollars, the minimum wage, and the outside counsel, have in…”

“what does the Speaker's dinner tonight, called Dining for Dollars, the minimum wage, and the outside counsel, have in common? It is a $50,000-a-plate dinner on which there will be a $19,000 tax break for everyone attending, which, incidentally, will pay the total wage for two minimum wage earners, the waiters, valets, car parkers, and so on, who will be waiting on those people, and incidentally, those wage earners will have trouble going to McDonald's to get the same tax break. It all raises questions of access. I want to suggest a show for the new National Empowerment Network. Legal shows are popular. This will focus on questions such as media tycoons who have matters before Federal agencies and book deals with high congressional officials. It can focus on political action committees that will not release the contributors before January 1. It can probe all types of questions of access. However, Mr. Speaker, we ought to take this show for the outside counsel out of Congress and get it where it belongs, in the public and with a true outside counsel.”