Date: 2007-05-23
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Like happens to you sometimes. my blood is starting to boil because all that it takes. Im sitting here listening to this back and forth that were going through here and example after example about the reasons for the American peoples outrage. for our outrage. for our persistence in trying to move this iceberg and get some progress and end the blank check and establish some accountability. You know. its very simple. All the President has to do is be a diplomat himself and agree to come to the table and compromise and negotiate and end the mywayorthehighway politics. He is not king. Yes. -he was elected President. but he was elected to one branch.of the government. which. the way our government is set up. is designed to work coequally with this branch of government. He has disdained the legislative branch. and this is the representative body of the United States of America. The people who elect us elect us to be their voice. They elect one person. an executive. and they elect 435 of us so we can have a collective diversity of opinion and that the result in terms of the outcome of policy is a combination of that diversity. And he has no respect for it. and thats why his numbers are where they are. Thats why the support for this President. the bottom has dropped out of it. And thats why over the next several months we will push this iceberg with all our might. and I can feel it. that their ability to continue unabated with the disdain and disregard that this administration has shown for the American people and our opinion. it will come to an end and its going to come to an end in a fashion that we will help bring about the change that the American people ask for. And that is the only way that this is going to happen. if we continue to fight. we continue to push hard. we make sure that we go out to our communities like we will all do next week. I know Im having a town hall meeting next Wednesday in my district to talk specifically about the war in Iraq and how people feel about it. get their feedback. talk about the other issues that are important to them. because people are tired. Theyre tired of the war. Theyre sick of the deaths. Theyre sick of the death tall. and toey want us to be able to talk about how were going to expand health care. We have the SCHIP program that we need to reauthorize later this year. We have 9 million kids that we need to find the money to cover. We have to make sure we can reduce the cost of health care for small businesses. We have a deficit that has ballooned out of control. that were trying to get a handle on. no thanks to our friends on the other side of the aisle. We have a lot to do. a long todo list. and it would be great if the President would just recognize that we all need to work together and end his disrespect for the American people and for the democratic process because its gone on for far too long. And we have a lot at stake here. And I just have reached my level of frustration. I know my constituents have. and thats why Im proud of our caucus because we have hung together. We have stuck together and pushed and pushed and -pushed each other so that we can get behind a policy that not all of us are 100 percent behind. Everybody didnt get their way- with the legislation that we put. forward with benchmarks and timelines. But you know what? Thats what this representative body that we were elected to is all about. Its about compromise and its about standing up for the people who dont have a voice. They elected us to be their voice and I have been very proud to be a Member of this institution. really proud of our Democratic leadership. And Im just hopeful that we can get beyond this war and start talking about things like the $3.22 a gallon that our constituents are paying. on average. for their gas as we approach the summer season as well.