Speeches

House Chamber, Washington, D.C. March 6, 2009. M. Speaker:

I rise today in tribute to Rev. Wadahawa Singh Gill, who passed away last week at the age of 87.

House Chamber, Washington, D.C.
March 5, 2009

Mr. Speaker:

We have all heard a great deal of rhetoric blaming the Bush administration for the nation’s economic woes, and I actually rise to join that chorus.

House Chamber, Washington, D.C.
March 3, 2009

M. Speaker:

The Laffer Curve is a simple but elegant method of demonstrating how increasing taxes reduces economic productivity until a point of equilibrium is reached when further tax hikes actually reduce revenue.

House Chamber, Washington D.C.
March 3, 2009

M. Speaker:

I’d like to offer a word of caution about the law of unintended consequences.

Last week, this house passed the Administration’s proposal to allow homeowners to force banks to reduce the size of their mortgages and interest rates.

House Chamber, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2009. M. Speaker: Sierra Pacific Industries just announced the closure of its sawmill in Quincy, California, throwing another 150 families out of work.

House Chambers, Washington D.C.
February 25, 2009

M. Speaker:

When it was announced that Randolph Churchill had been hospitalized to remove a benign tumor, a parliamentary wag commented, “What a pity it is to remove the only part of Randolph that isn’t malignant.”

House Chamber, Washington, D.C.
February 12, 2009

M. Speaker:

I rise again to urge the majority to consider very carefully the damage they are doing to our nation’s economy by passing this unprecedented spending measure.

House Chamber, Washington D.C.
February 10, 2009

M. Speaker:

Benjamin Franklin warned us that “Passion governs, but she never governs wisely.”

As the Congress and the President rush to enact the latest in a long line of mega-spending bills, I think we would be well advised to spend a little more time on the dispassionate math of the matter.