The Public Record
if they are making a movie this summer of the Republican budget, I think it can be titled ``Honey, I Shrunk the Budget and I Blew Up the Economy.'' I blew it up by gutting Medicare, cutting it up to 25 percent. And who will pay for that…
I could not let the last Republican speaker pass unchallenged who says we are really going to increase Medicare. Well, I guess it is sort of like Medicare, you are going to get the same level of services, but we are going to cut you back a…
Mr. Majority Leader, if I could engage you for a moment, I want to point out to the majority leader that last week you and I had a colloquy. The gentleman observed that it was in our best interest to put me at home with my family as…
the reason that I am opposing what is billed as the Common Sense Legal Reform Act or Tort Reform Act is not because I am opposed to all tort reform. I am not. I think what most people want is they want to see the courts that are clogged…
I think somewhere there has to be a middle ground between the previous Republican speaker who was ecstatic that we were going to be allowed 8 full hours of debate. Of course, that includes voting time, which, if you look at the chart of…
If I could add to that, ``If you're not rich, don't play,'' that, ``If you're very poor, you'll have to pay.''
So that is a considerable risk. The other myth, I think, is that people enter into these suits lightly, thinking, well, I do not have to pay anything, and, therefore, I can just go down, retain a lawyer, and sort of like the lottery will…
I would like to preface my remarks by saying that, yes, I did practice law before coming to the Congress. I think it should be noted that personal injury suits of any kind were not a part of my practice. In fact, I spent years trying to…
If I could just share a couple of examples with the gentleman, I have not seen my two children awake, my young children, 7 and 5, in a waking state after 8 a.m. in the last 2 work weeks. My son drew a picture, my 7-year-old on Dads' Day…
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…
I want to rise today to state my support of the President's proposal to raise the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 in 45 cent increments. Today in West Virginia a family of three making the minimum wage is below the poverty line, making…
But when confronted with individual items coming back in a Presidential line-item veto or rescission, if my colleagues will, and knowing that the full public scrutiny is, ``How did you vote on this controversial area or this controversial…
As I understand it, it is criticizing our approach on the grounds that a single House, if the President's rescission were defeated in the House, that it would not even go to the Senate. But is it not also true that in the gentleman's…
Correct. And having been here when that was on the floor, by the time it got the scrutiny it did--and that is the purpose of the rescission process, the line item veto--by the time it got the scrutiny it did, both Houses overwhelmingly…
When the President sends his rescission, it is introduced as a bill in the House. It goes to committee, it must be acted upon within 7 days, and it must be on the House floor within 10 days and voted on in the manner of any bill. The…
But the gentleman might be equally as uncomfortable with the fact that one-third plus one in either body can control this whole process.
There are two goals, it seems to me, with any kind of modified line-item veto such as we are discussing today. The goals are that the President be able to line item items in appropriation bills that he or she thinks should be cut and that…
Mr. speaker, one of those embarassing genies popped out of the bottle last night when NBC-TV revealed the secret behind the Republican leadership strategies when the playbook was opened to public scrutiny, and the strategy described might…
It is time to pass the gift ban for lobbyists. In his State of the Union message, the President encouraged Congress to voluntarily abandon lobbyist gifts and trips. He is right. We do not need a law to do what each of us can do…
tonight what I would like to discuss is capital budgeting an its relation to the balanced budget amendment of the Constitution, for one of the amendments that will be on the floor tomorrow will be the amendment that I appreciate the…
Mr. Chairman, this is the Congress that is trying to be family friendly. We hear a lot of talk about helping middle-class families and we talk a lot about how families have to balance their budgets, all of which is true. So we can learn…
There is no capitol budget program. It counts a dollar of consumption exactly the same as a dollar of investment, even though the investment dollar will bring you back much more in economic growth and tax revenues.
I hope that the Chair and others understand what the concern of Democrats is today about last night. It is not about whether there were 3 minutes on one side and 5 minutes on the other. The concern is that on a very important motion that…
by the end of this week we will have under consideration a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. That is fine. West Virginia has a balanced budget requirement, as do most of the States in the Union. I myself have introduced a…
next week the House will most likely take up the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. This is not an argument for or against the balanced budget amendment. I have supported versions of it in the past. It is an argument, though…
Politicians like Bob Wise
