Date: 2007-12-18
Speaker: DAVID DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Tennessee

Thank you. KEVIN. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your friendship. You know. we have been here almost a year now. and as I look at my fellow freshmen. I feel blessed to represent the American people with some of the best .people that I know. good people that are willing to come here and work hard and try to get things done for the American people. I grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee. My dad has got a sixth grade education. I was able to start a business. I was able to succeed. I was able to serve in the Tennessee legislature. It just goes to show that in America. you can do whatever you want to do. Henry Ford once said. "If you think you can or if you think you cant. you are right." That is common sense. If you go out there and you make things happen and you are willing to work hard. good things will happen for you. Henry Ford knew it. Teachers know it all across America. moms and dads and all across America. We live in a blessed Nation. As a matter of fact. it even talks about that in the Bible. In Psalms 33:12. it says "Blessed is the nation whose god is the Lord." We are a blessed people. and I feel very blessed to represent the people of northeast Tennessee back in my beloved mountains where common sense reigns. American values reign. You know. we are in America today and we are in an America where we spend too much money. Ronald Reagan understood this. When Ronald Reagan was President. he once said. "We dont have a trilliondollar debt because we dont tax enough. We have a trilliondollar debt because we spend too much." And I can tell you. Ronald Reagan would not have been pleased with this Congress this year because we have certainly. under the majority rule. they tried their best at every turn to find a way. a new way. to tax the American people. LI 2045 There are moms and dads sitting around the kitchen table all over this great country trying to put a budget together. They are trying to put a budget together to decide how they are going to take care of their kids. how they are going to buy gas for their automobile. how they are going to pay their heating oil bill. how they are going to pay for college for the next generation. how they are going to save for retirement. how they are going to provide for their health care costs that keep increasing day inand day out. The American people are looking for leadership. And when this new majority took over last year. they promised open. accountable. transparent government that was going to get results for the American people. Well. the results that this Congress has brought about. actually. over the last week or two have started to come back to some common sense. It took them about 50 weeks to get there. the longest in history. but finally they are starting to come back and going to pass some bills that cut their spending by about $20 billion. Thank goodness we had a President that said. I am going to veto if you spend too much. Thank goodness we had a minority party who stood up and said you are not going to spend too much money. Moms and dads across America can spend their money better than a Congress. Moms and dads know the answer of how to raise their kids better than a bureaucrat in Washington that has never met those kids. This majority has failed the American people right up to the last week or so. The majority failed to pass 11 out of 12 appropriation bills. Funding for this Congress and for this government actually ended back in October. and here we are on the eve of Christmas and we are still waiting to put the final touches on a budget that should have been done back in October. You couldnt do that back home in east Tennessee. You cant do that in any city in America. You have got to use common sense and you have got to pay your bills on time. MICHELLE talked a moment ago about the majority has failed to protect the taxpayer with the AMT fix. You see. no leadership. no results. And that is basically where we are at. If the AMT is not fixed this week. it will leave 23 million taxpayers owing more money and not bringing their refunds home the way they expect. It will be a tax increase on the middle class. No leadership. no results. Then. you look at the energy bill that has been talked about all year. Finally passed one this week. It is amazing. you get to the 11th hour of the l1th month and you finally start to pass some of these bills. But an energy bill that basically had everything in it except energy. We had an energy bill that had regulations. we had an energy bill that had taxes. and we had an energy bill that had no energy. No leadership. no results. And we are certainly seeing that today. Then we had a majority party that has tried their best to do everything they can to make sure that the troops didnt receive the funding that they deserve. I went over to Iraq and spent time with the men and women in uniform. and there are young men and women over there that the American people would be very proud of. They want to be there. they volunteered to be there. They want to come home. but they want to come home in success. not in failure. We have a majority party that actually had a leadership back in the spring that said: we failed. I can tell you. I can tell my colleagues. we have not failed. America has not failed. Ronald Reagan also used to say when he said tear down that wall. he said they lose. we win. I would hate to be in a situation in this war where we have to look back and say. we lost. they won. And we wont do that if we protect our men and women in uniform. And we can do that. As a matter of fact. there is a bill on the Senate floor tonight to make sure. that funding is available for our men and women in uniform across the globe. not just part of the globe. but across the globe. See. if you have no leadership. you have no results. And then the majority party has talked about health care. probably one of the most pressing issues facing the American family today. We talk about a need to fix health care. but we have not seen it in this Congress. The American people demand the ability to be able to go out and afford and feel reasonably comfortable that their childreri. themselves. and their moms and dads are going to receive the health care that they need. And there are solutions to those problems. but you have to have leadership to get results. No leadership. no results. Then the cost of energy. When this majority party took over. it was interesting. if you look back. they said: the Republicans have left us in a lurch. Our cost of energy is skyrocketing. If you will give us the opportunity to lead. we are going to lower the cost of energy. When the Republicans gave up the majority in January. oil was $56 a barrel. Now it is $90 a barrel or thereabouts. $56 to about $90 a barrel. That is going in the wrong direction. Again. no leadership. no results. The American people want us to come together. work as a team. and work on these issues. health care. energy. funding our troops so we can win. taking care of immigration. building the fence. making sure we have a secure Nation. making sure that we have an education system where our children can feel reasonably sure that they can go out and get the education they need. That is the type of leadership we need. That is the type of leadership that was promised for the most honest and ethical and open Congress ever. I am still waiting. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be with you.