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House Chamber, Washington DC. March 9, 2009. Perhaps only one generation in a century is fortunate enough to actually know a truly great leader – and ours was that generation. But our children and their children will know him too, through the power of his words and the force of his ideas – his undying faith in freedom and his eternal belief in America. And they will know him – and know him well – because our generation will make sure of it.

House Chamber, Washington, D.C., March 9, 2009. M. Speaker: I rise to honor the memory of Dr. Gregory Freydman of California.

Dr. Freydman spent most of his life seeking freedom for his family, and finally fulfilled that dream at the age of 72 when he legally immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union. He had been a renowned oncologist there and had risked his livelihood and his liberty to speak out against Soviet abuses.

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.

For many years, Rev. Gill was the spiritual leader of the Sikh community in Northern California. He was an amazing man who not only ministered to the more than 100,000 Sikh faithful in the Sacramento region, he made himself a bridge between the Sikh community and the general public.

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.

We all are painfully aware that the Bush administration increased spending twice as fast as it did under Bill Clinton. The Bush administration added $160 billion to the deficit through tax transfers with its first stimulus bill a year ago – despite warnings that it would do nothing to stimulate the economy. It didn’t.

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.

If the tax rate is zero, tax revenues are zero. But if the tax rate is 100 percent, tax revenues also reach zero, because there’s no point in working.

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.

Millions of families – including my own – now owe more on our mortgages than our homes are worth – yet more than 90 percent of homeowners continue to make our mortgage payments in hopes of better days to come.

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.

They made it clear that the recession wasn’t the cause but merely the catalyst. The real cause is that their regulatory costs – and litigation because of regulation – now exceeds their profit margin. Two thirds of their harvest is tied up as a result.

By Congressman Tom McClintock