macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2008-03-12
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Chairman. 25 years ago I stood on this floor and didnt quote rock and roll but quoted a country singer called Johnny Paycheck and his famous song "Take This Job and Shove It." It was the lament of the working man imposed upon by many outside forces but predominantly the governments telling him what to do and taking his money. And here I am 25 years later. now a member of the Budget Committee. once again in the minority. and I hear the same thing from my good friends across the aisle: tax and spend. tax and spend. tax and spend. and pretend youre not doing it. Lets be very clear about this budget. You can talk about everything else. but I would like to talk about one thing: taxes. Taxes. I didnt think you would be able to do it. Mr. Chairman. last year we had the largest tax increase in the history of the United States. which means the largest tax increase in the history of the world. by the way. But they did themselves one better. This is even larger. This tax increase is $683 billion. Now. thats not the total tax. Thats the tax increase were talking about. I really thought last year we would never see that topped. but we almost double it this year. Now. what does this mean? When we were debating in the committee. I said. and I must apologize for this to my constituents in " California. that if adopted and implemented. the Democratic budget would impose on my California constituents an increase. average tax hike. of $3.000. Well. I am corrected. I am corrected. It will actually give an increase. average tax hike. to Californians of $3.331. Luckily. my constituents dont live in Connecticut. because there they would get an average tax hike of $4.311. This is thegift that keeps on giving. or I guess we should say keeps on taking. So if you want to know if you can stand on the floor of the House and set a record. if you want to be the Olympic champion on steroids of taxes. vote for this budget. Vote for this budget. Now. I understand if youre an adherent of Big Government. you need big taxes. So if you do believe that we dont have a large enough government. then vote for this budget. because it will increase the size of the Federal Government relative to local government. relative to State government. relative to the average taxpayer. relative to the rest of the world. It will break all records. The largest single tax increase in the history of the world. $683 billion. Remember that number: $683 billion.
Date: 2008-03-12
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. the Democrats leadership may not want to admit that they are going to impose on our Nations workers. on our taxpayers. on the small and midsized businesses of this country the largest tax increase in American history. But. regrettably. as this Democratic budget again proves. raising taxes is exactly .not only what they have planned. but what they are doing in this budget. and it is important that taxpayers know what these massive tax hikes will mean to them. to you. to the American people. So. lets take a look at how this budget impacts the American people. the American family. the American taxpayer. A family of four with $50.000 in annual income would see a tax increase of over $2.100. $2.100 by 2011. as a result of this budget. That is a tax increase of 191 percent. Fortyeight million married couples. So listen up. if you are one of those 48 million. Chances are you are. Fortyeight million married couples will see their tax bills rise by an average of $3.000. Twelve million single women with dependents will face a tax increase of nearly $1.100. Eighteen million seniors. 18 million seniors. will see a tax increase of more than $2.100 by 2011. Twentyseven million small business. owners. who are the backbone of our national economy that create the jobs. will see their taxes increase by over $4.000. � More than 6 million lowincome taxpayers. yes. 6 million lowincome taxpayers who previously paid no Federal income tax. because of the changes in the Tax Code due to the elimination of the 10 percent tax rate. will see a huge tax increase. These are just a few of the examples of what this budget does. I respectfully ask Members to oppose this budget.
Date: 2008-03-12
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. I support the priorities of the Republican budget to control spending and keep taxes low. I commend the Budget Committee ranking member. PAUL RYAN. for putting together a budget alternative that prevents expansion of the alternative minimum tax for 3 years and then achieves repeal of this tax system in 2013. This is a huge step in modernizing the Tax Code. and it will give Americans certainty about their tax situation. The Democrat budget only puts the AMT on a leash for 1 year before allowing it to ravage more American families. Our Republican budget would also ensure that American families continue t6 be free of the stupidity of the marriage penalty and that families get to keep tax credits for children. Finally. our budget would continue to help make sure that investment in American capitalism and jobs will continue to thrive by allowing the tax rate -on dividends and longterm capital gains to stay at the 15 percent rate. The Democrat budget would raise taxes on my constituents .by $2.669. I dont see how we can support that. We balance the budget by 2012 by putting spending under control. Its important to know that total government spending does rise every year of the American budget. but there will be a lot of people claiming that we are actually cutting spending. Only in Washington can more spending be translated as a cut. We pick and choose programs to cut by millions of dollars. and there are spending priorities that would get more mone3. Thats what we are paid to do here in the Capitol. set priorities for whats important to the Nation. Republicans in our budget take on the big issue of entitlement reform. I am very disappointed that the Democrat budget fails to sdriously address the pending crisis in our countrys entitlement programs. Congress has been warned many times that an entitlement reform is needed now. You would think. the countless reports. testimonies and letters sent to Congress would get the attention of the majority. But if you look at their budget. you will see only the real action on reforming Social Security. Medicare or Medicaid is to kick the can down the road. The cost is roughly $14 trillion. By refusing to make the tough decisions on how to resolve the serious financial trouble these programs are facing. the Democrats have decided to leave those decisions to someone else. Medicare and Medicaid need real reform to stop the slippery slope these programs are currently on. We cannot tweak the edges and make small changes and expect dramatic results. March 12. 2008 . CC We need to take a look at some real success stories in Medicare and Medicaid and see how we can apply the lessons. For example. independent actuaries again this year have announced that the projected costs for Medicare part D will be lower than expected. Beneficiaries have. enjoyed premiums that are 40 percent lower than original estimates. Compare that to the fact that part B premiums have doubled in price over the last 6 years. The Republican budget is a better proposal. I suggest you vote for it.
Date: 2008-03-13
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. at this time I would like to recognize. frankly. one of the most talented and one of the most knowledgeable Members in the United States Congress on fiscal matters. that is. the ranking member of the Budget Committee. the gentleman from Wisconsin . for 5 minutes.
Date: 2008-03-13
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. I yield myself 30 seconds. I want everybody to kind of listen to this debate. to just listen to see where you hear one reduction in this amendment or in the underlying budget. one reduction in Federal spending. one reduction in waste. one cut in waste. one program that is eliminated. one thing in the Federal Government that should get a little bit less money. Please listen to that. and what you will hear is March 13. 2008 . CO just the opposite. More spending. More spending. More spending. more Federal programs. and not one reduction. Is the Federal Government. so efficient there is nothing that can be reduced? I dont think so. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2008-03-13
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. I yield myself 30 seconds. I think if you ask the American taxpayer if it helps our domestic security to increase their taxes by $1.1 trillion over the next 5 years like this amendment does. they would probably tell you that no. and that frankly. it puts their domestic security in great jeopardy. or the $683 billion in tax increases in the underlying Democratic budget. I think obviously the answer would be the same. I reserve the balance of my time.
Date: 2008-03-13
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. I yield myself 1 minute. As you have heard. yes. we have heard time and time again this amendment does. and the underlying budget does. increase spending. And how do they pay for the increased spending? Well. $1.1 trillion over the next 5 years in increased taxes. Let me repeat that: $1.1 trillion in increased taxes. Including who? Who would get taxed? Well. everybody would get a tax increase. including. for example. reducing the child tax credit in half. including raising taxes by not extending the 10 percent tax bracket for the verylowincome taxpayers of this country. including not extending the tax relief for married couples. This $1.1 trillion in increased taxes would hit every American. every small business. every family. every taxpayer.
Date: 2008-03-13
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. I yield 2 minutes to the ranking member of the Budget Committee. the gentleman from Wisconsin .
Date: 2008-03-13
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Chairman. I once again want to commend our colleagues from the CBC. They have done a lot of work to put this budget together. Itis not an easy task to do. It takes a lot of work. not only from the members. from their staffs. so I want to commend them for putting together a work product that I know they spent a lot of time and a lot of effort on. and they must be commended for that. Obviously. as you have heard today. we have some huge disagreements. This amendment would raise taxes by more than $1.1 trillion. thats trillion with a "T." over the next 5 years. Its $427 billion above and beyond the already $683 billion in tax increases in the underlying Democratic budget that. frankly. was pretty much just rejected in a very strong vote in the Senate. 991. The reason there was a 991 vote was because the Senators on both sides of the aisle. Republicans and Democrats. do not want to support eliminating all of these middle class tax cuts. the tax cuts on families. the tax cuts per child. et cetera. et cetera. which is why they rejected that and adopted an amendment to have half the size of the tax increase that the underlying budget has. Half that size of an increase in taxes is still way too high. However. the underlying budget that the House is looking at. again. would raise taxes on the American people by $683 billion over the next 5 years. and this amendment goes even further than that by increasing taxes $1.1 trillion over the next 5 years. For those reasons and many others. I respectfully would ask to vote against this amendment. But I do want to end one more time by commending the gen-
Date: 2008-03-13
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I was here for the last three secret sessions we had. They are unusual. but it is within the rules that did deal with subject matter dealing with legislation that we were to talk about. We should be careful. however. while some classified information might be discussed. the information that those of us on the Judiciary Committee and Intelligence Committee received of the. program we were read into. we are not able to discuss what we were briefed on specifically. We are. as I understand under the rules. able to draw conclusions and attempt to present that based on what we saw. but the fact that we have a secret session does not allow us to speak to that. Secondly. that which is discussed in the secret session cannot be revealed even if it is of an unclassified nature. It does not prohibit you in the later debate on the floor from discussing the same subject saying the same thing. it is that you cannot refer to it having been in the secret session. And I hope that helps the gentleman.
Date: 2008-03-13
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. As a member of the Judiciary Committee whos read into the program. when Mr. BLUNT talked to me about the possibility of this effort. it was in the context of how do we make that careful distinction. and those of us whove been read into the program. to try and inform the membership without violating the confidentiality under which we work. And the suggestion was that a secret session might allow for a freer discussion. while those of us whove been read into the- program still protect the classified nature of the program. Now. I dont know if its going to work. All Im saying is its no information thats. from my standpoint. that is unknown to other members of the Judiciary or the Intelligence Committee whove been read into the program. but its our effort to try and find some vehicles by which we can inform the membership while still preserving the confidential status of that information. Its nothing that we have within our bosom that no one else has. It is information that were trying to find a vehicle to allow the other membership to be informed. And I hope that helps the gentleman.
Date: 2008-03-14
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. oftentimes what is said on this floor reveals the dif.ferences between the two parties or the difference between the two approaches. The gentleman who just spoke before me made an allegation about the breathtaking and overwhelming nature of the Presidents request for information. Frankly. I thought what was at stake at the time was the breathtaking and overwhelming threat that this Nation faced after 9/11. Thats what the President was responding to. Thats what the President utilized in his request of American companies that come to the aid of their country. And here we stand saying we cannot reward them except to give them lawsuits. The gentleman. from Texas says if the companies are innocent. as if there is some question. I sat through all of those briefings. There is. in my judgment. not one iota of evidence that the companies acted inappropriately whatsoever. Not one iota of evidence sitting there after question after question after question. yet. on this floor. we raised the very question of those companies by saying if they are innocent. And what does Mr. REYES say?. If they are innocent. then it will be decided the good old American way: Go to court. Well. Im a lawyer. but I dont think most Americats think the American way in every instance is to go to court. If you look at the legislation we have before us. it is rewarding the Good Samaritans with a lawsuit. There is a fig leaf here. yes. Now the majority side says. You know. there is a problem that we have to address with respect to telecommunications companies. Thats progress. because when we were arguing on the floor with your previous provisions. you didnt even admit that. Now you do it. and now you say we are going to take care of it by the States secrets doctrine and by going to a secret court proceeding. Itis a fig leaf to allow Members to vote for a bill you know is never going to become law. It is not effective. How do I know? Twentyfive attorney general of the United States say it doesnt work. They say support the provision thats contained in the Senate bill. Democrats and Republicans alike from Texas. from North Carolina. from Oklahoma. from Florida. from Alabama. Arkansas. Alaska. Colorado. Georgia. Idaho. Indiana. Kansas. Maryland. Michigan. Nebraska. New Hampshire. North Dakota. Rhode Island. South Dakota. Virginia. West Virginia. Washington. Utah. South Carolina. and Pennsylvania. No. Mr. Speaker. the President is not wrong. No. Mr. Speaker. he is not doing this to protect himself. Hes doing it as these attorneys general of the United States recognize to allow us to go forward in protecting the American people. Dont harm these telecommunications companies with friendly fire.
Date: 2008-04-01
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. I thank the gentleman for recognizing me. � Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of my bill. H.R. 5168. which will rename the post office on Cortez Boulevard in Brooksville. Florida. after Private First Class Cody Grater. Cody was a resident from my district who lived in Spring Hill. He gave the ultimate sacrifice. his life. for his country while serving in Iraq. Cody Grater joined the Army in 2006 when he was only 19 years old. Actually. my grandson went to high school with him. so this tragedy certainly did hit home with our family. Cody was proud to be serving his country and hoped to make a career out of his service in the Army. By the time of his death in July 2007. Cody had received the Purple Heart. the Bronze Star Medal. the Combat Action Badge and many other honors. While serving on guard duty in Baghdad. the rooftop where Cody stood guard was struck by a rocketpropelled grenade. Just two weeks earlier. Cody been on leave in Florida with his family. where he was telling people about his previous experiences in Iraq. sharing it with his friends. family and former high school mates. Even though he was just at the halfway point of his tour of duty..Cody expressed plans to reenlist after his initial service in the Army was completed. I hope that this act of renaming the post office will memorialize Codys brave and selfless life. Cody Grater epitomizes the courage and patriotism of our volunteer military. and we must never forget his great sacrifice to our Nation. I urge my colleagues to support this bill. which rightfully honors Cody Grater.
Date: 2008-04-01
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank the gentleman for the time. and I rise in support of this bill. I was with my 90yearold mother on Sunday back in Sacramento. And I remember when my mor used to drag me and my six brothers and sisters off to the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. And I remember when she worked with the leaders of the orchestra to bring other performers over to perform. Its not an easy thing when you have an organization like that. I know the gentleman from Iowa is talking about some of the more expensive organizations. but were talking in this bill about all of these nonprofits being able to have the flexibility to bring foreign artists over here. Interestingly. the Congress. a number of years ago. asked the agency involved to have a flexible system which would allow them to make the request up to 1 year before.-And what happened was the agency turned it arouAd and said well. you couldnt do it unless it was at least 6 months or a year before. So. it sort of defeated the very flexibility Members of Congress asked for to allow this to happen. We should understand that What weve been trying to do is get the agency to deal with thesd applications in a timely fashion. And the idea that you would get premium service is really kind of an interesting idea. to ask the government to do what it should do. but to do it on time we now charge you for it. Well. we do that in some circumstances because we do have difficulty with budgets. but here were talking about only nonprofit art organizations. So many times on this floor. it seems to me. we do more than we should. we go out and we solve problems that arent there. We often pass legislation in search of a problem. This is not that case. This is a problem that does exist. These organizations. the Alabama Symphony Organization. the Florida West Coast Symphony. the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. the Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago. the Louisville Orchestra. the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Opera of Cleveland. Paul Taylor Dance Company. Pittsburgh Opera. Sarasota Opera. Florida Grand Opera. I mean. you can go down and down and down. and you see this is all over the country. a request of community organizations that are not profit that are just asking for the flexibility to be able to bring foreign artists here. which also creates an environment for U.S. artists to go overseas. And Im old enough to recall during the Cold War that was one of the things we thought was a good thing. In fact. if you think about it. the Soviets. thats one of the things they didnt want. they didnt want American artists over there and they didnt want their artists over here. Why? Because it really began to open the eyes of many*people as to some of the greatness that we have and the freedom that we have and the artistic merit that exists in a country such as ours. So. I would just hope that we would support this bill. It should not be controversial. Hopefully. it will be a unanimous vote.
Date: 2008-04-02
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. a recent report shows Social Security sliding into the red. We need to protect our younger generation. and I think it is up to the Congress to take serious action now. The Trustees Annual Report on Social Security released a couple of weeks ago paints a gloomy picture. Social Security will begin paying out more money than it tak~es in from payroll taxes in 2017. and by 2041 the Social Security trust fund is going to be exhausted. These dismal dates come as no surprise to us. Each day that ebbs by we are left with fewer options on how to address this growing problem. As ranking member on the Social Security Subcommittee. I stand ready to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find real solutions for all Americans for our future. The time is now. We cannot afford to wait.
Date: 2008-04-02
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs who has had such an important role and hand in this legislation. the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-
Date: 2008-04-02
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. it is my privilege to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia . a physician who does so much on issues of health day in and day out throughout the United States. and. as on this issue. throughout the world.
Date: 2008-04-02
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. its my privilege to yield 42 -minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Florida. also a physician. Dr. WELDON.
Date: 2008-04-02
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. it is my privilege to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Puerto Rico. who is a leader on issues of health and has so much contributed to this important legislation. Mr. FORTUNRO.