This bill presents us with a simple question: "It is possible - just possible - that from time to time Congress has passed a spending bill or two that ought to have had greater scrutiny?" The answer to this question might elude some members of the House, but I assure them it is self-evident to everybody else.

Thank you for the invitation to join you again this year. What has brought me to support Indian gaming is not just the commerce and prosperity that it produces. There are two more fundamental principles at stake that make this a just and noble cause. One is the tribal sovereignty that made the once impoverished Indian reservations islands of freedom in an ocean of anti-business regulations emanating from local, state and federal governments.

A family that excludes from its budget the mortgage payments it knows it must make is deluding itself and sabotaging its own finances. That's precisely what the federal government is doing right now with respect to billions of dollars of liabilities because of its ill-fated sponsorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.